A Shot in the Dark
by Timesprite
Summary: Matrix, AndrAIa, and Frisket find themselves stranded in a system, unable to continue game-hopping.
1. Default Chapter

Time scale:  
nanosecond=second  
microsecond=minute  
millisecond=hour  
cycle=day  
second=week  
minute=month  
hour=year

Part Seven 

**"I live in the Games.   
I search through, systems, peoples, and cities,   
For this place:   
Mainframe.   
My home.   
**

My Format? I have no format.   
I am a Renegade, lost on the 'Net.   
ReBoot!" ---- 

They were pinned down with no place to go. The end of the level lay at the opposite end of the long hallway in the form of an elevator. The problem was, the user was caught someplace between their position and the elevator. Matrix, AndrAIa and Frisket couldn't leave the safety of the barrels without getting shot by the user, and vice versa. 

They'd reached a standstill. Another round of ammunition clanged off the barrels and wall as Matrix tried to get a better fix on the user's location. 

"Not good." The large sprite growled to his companion. "He's behind the instrument panel. I can't get a clear shot!" 

"Maybe you don't have to." AndrAIa said thoughtfully. 

"What do you mean?" 

The game sprite opened her mouth to reply, but quickly flattened herself against the wall as more weapons fire ricocheted overhead. 

Matrix scowled and returned fire. "I wish he'd stop doing that." 

"He's testing us." AndrAIa commented. 

"What?" 

"Think about it. Every time he fires at us, you fire back. He's testing to see if we're still here." 

"Of course!" Matrix said, slapping his forehead with the palm of his hand. "I must be totally basic! All we have to do is sit here and wait for him to move. I just hope he doesn't take too long, we don't have much time left." The objective of the game was to get to the main reactor core, and keep it from overloading. They'd gotten the keycard they needed to complete the shut-down earlier, but they were running out of time. Frisket whined impatiently. 

"Quiet, Frisket," Matrix whispered. The big dog sank to the floor despondently. 

A volley of fire echoed overhead twice more before the hallway fell into a eerie silence. "I think this might be it." Matrix said, keeping an eye on the hallway. Their patience won out. The user dashed out into the hallway. "Gun. Command line: Target user." Matrix's artificial eye glowed briefly, and a red target appeared on the users back. He fired and the user dropped in place. 

AndrAIa had already left the sanctuary of the of the barrels and was headed towards the elevator, Frisket close behind her. 

Without warning, the entire hallway exploded in a bright flash of light, and Matrix found himself slammed up against the metal wall. He shook his head and leapt to his feet, racing towards the end of the hall. "AndrAIa!" She was sprawled against one wall. He was at her side in an instant. She was unconscious, but appeared otherwise unhurt. Behind him, Frisket had gotten to his feet and trotted over to his side, whimpering. "It's okay, boy." He said absently, scooping the game sprite into his arms and heading for the elevator. 

Alarms were sounding as he reached the Main Reactor. Time was almost up. "I guess we won't be leaving with this game after all." He sighed, reaching over and tapping AndrAIa and Frisket's icons to sprite mode before doing the same to his own. He then inserted the keycard into the appropriate slot. 

**"Game Over."**

The game cube dissolved around the trio, leaving Matrix and Frisket standing in the same damaged system they'd been trying to leave. Frisket barked at him. "I know, boy. Don't worry. We'll take the next game out." He shifted AndrAIa in his arms and turned to head back to the apartment they'd appropriated in one of the few sectors left unnullified by the games. 

---- 

AndrAIa sat up slowly on the stasis bed. Everything ached. She blinked a few times, trying to get her eyes to adjust to the semi-dark room. "Where are we?" 

"Still in the same system." Matrix replied. AndrAIa could just make out his form next to the window one the opposite side of the room. Everything was shadowy, vaguely fuzzy looking, as if someone had messed with the resolution. 

"What happened?" 

"Proximity concussion mine. The user must have set it to keep us from following him. You tripped it when you went for the elevator. How are you feeling?" 

"Sore. I think I'm okay though." She shook her head. The room still looked strange, but she was sure it would pass. 

"You're sure?" He still sounded concerned. 

"I'm _fine_ Enzo." She replied, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. She stood up slowly, assessing the various aches and pains the motion presented. "Ouch. That must have been some mine." She winced, walking over to where Matrix was sitting. 

"You're sure you're okay." He said again. 

"Yes! Don't worry about me, Lover..." Her voice trailed off as she looked out the window. 

"What?" Matrix asked, following her gaze. 

"Nothing." AndrAIa replied softly. The world outside the window was a dim, multicolored blur before her eyes. "Nothing at all." 

---- 

They were wandering the abandoned streets of the sector, waiting for the next game to come. They hadn't seen a single other sprite since they'd entered the system and the few binomes who were lurking around hid from them. "I think this system is as good as crashed." AndrAIa commented, and stumbled over a piece of rubble in her path, catching herself on the side of the building. Matrix looked askance at her, his customary frown deepening for a nanosecond. "What?" 

"That's the third time you've done that." 

AndrAIa shrugged. "I guess I'm just not watching where I'm walking." 

"You're _sure_ you're okay." He said, a hint of doubt in his voice. 

"Will you stop asking me that?" She cried in an exasperated voice, stopping in her tracks. "Don't you trust me?" 

"Of course I trust you. You know that." He took her hand in his own. "You're the only one I trust." 

"Oh, Enzo." AndrAIa sighed. She felt horrible about lying to him. In truth, her sight hadn't returned. If anything, it had gotten worse. Just walking down the street was becoming a hazard. But she wasn't about to tell Enzo that. He'd insist on staying in the system and trying to hunt down a Diagnostic Program. She doubted the ravaged system still had one, and even if it did, there was always a chance her blindness was permanent...she shoved that thought to the farthest reaches of her mind She didn't want to process that possibility at the moment. With any luck, her sight would come back on it's own, and Matrix would be none the wiser. 

**"Warning: Incoming Game."**

"Finally." Matrix muttered, looking up at the descending game cube. He, AndrAIa, and Frisket got into position and waited for the game to stabilize around them. 

Matrix looked around at the game spread out before him. "Oh no." He groaned. "I _hate_ this game!" 

"What?" AndrAIa squinted, trying to make out the scenery. All she could see was a dark greenish blur. But from the sound of things, they were in a jungle of some sort. She could hear birds and other wildlife rustling around in the foliage. 

"It's the one with the big rock." Matrix sulked. He tapped his icon into game sprite mode. "Reboot!" He glanced down at his new wardrobe. He was dressed in all khakis, with a whip on one side of his belt and Gun in it's holster on the other side. There was a brown leather Fedora perched on top of his head. 

"I don't think I've played this one." AndrAIa replied, tapping her icon and then reaching down to do the same to Frisket's. She rebooted into an amazon guide of some sort, with a short leather skirt and a halter top. She had a machete tucked into her belt. Frisket's colors changed to dark browns. 

"I played it with Bob." Matrix said, and AndrAIa couldn't miss the pain in his voice at the mention of the lost Guardian. "Well," he sighed, "let's get this over with and get out of this system. The entrance to the temple is someplace over here, if I recall correctly. Hand me that machete, will you?" AndrAIa handed him the knife and he began to hack his way through the undergrowth. AndrAIa followed cautiously, trying not to stumble as she walked down the rough passage Matrix was cutting through the jungle. 

"So what exactly is the point of this game?" 

"Get the idol before the user does. Without getting deleted." 

"Gee...how original." She almost smacked into Matrix as he stopped walking. 

"There it is." He said, pointing to a grayish patch in her field of vision. 

"Well, that was easy enough." 

"The real challenge is in the temple." He replied gruffly. "It's booby-trapped." That said, the trio marched across the clearing and into the temple's entrance. Matrix had to bend over to keep from hitting his head on the ceiling. "Funny, I don't remember it being this cramped." He said dryly. 

"Was that a joke?" AndrAIa kidded, running a hand along the wall to keep her bearings. She couldn't see anything at all now in the dimly lit passage. 

"It opens up again a little ways ahead. There should be some torches there too." He tried to look over his shoulder at AndrAIa and Frisket, and smacked his head on the stone ceiling. "Ow!" 

"Be careful." The game sprite chided from behind him. 

"Here we go." Matrix's voice now echoed hollowly off the stone walls. They'd reached the main passage. He reached over and grabbed one of the flickering torches off the wall. "This way. You and Frisket go ahead of me." They continued down the long corridor. 

"I don't like this." Matrix murmured. "It's too easy. We should have run into one of the traps by now." 

"Maybe we're just lucky, Lover." AndrAIa shoved some cobwebs away from her face and took another step forward. Her ankle hit a tripwire strung across the passage and she toppled forward as round steel blades swung out from the wall, viciously sharp. She felt one whiz past her face as she fell, neatly slicing off a lock of her hair. Behind her, Matrix jumped backwards to avoid the razor edged metal. The blades retracted with a whir and a click. AndrAIa pushed herself up onto her elbows from her prone position on the floor. 

"Are you okay?" Matrix asked worriedly, helping her to her feet. 

"I'm fine." She said, struggling to keep her voice from trembling. 

"It's a good thing you dove out of the way." The large sprite touched the end of her hair where it had been cut. "You could have been deleted!" 

"I had it under control, Enzo." She replied with a calm she didn't feel. Her mind was lingering on how close she'd just come to total deletion. "Come on, we have a user to beat!" 

---- 

One of the more sinister aspects of this particular game was that they really couldn't tell if they were beating the user or not. There were so many different side passages and turnoffs that the chances of anyone choosing the same path were infinitesimal. 

Matrix and AndrAIa were going as fast as they could down the narrow halls of the temple, racing a user they couldn't see to the goal at the end of the game. They'd just entered a series of particularly wide passages, much to AndrAIa's dismay. She'd been guiding herself by means of the walls, but now she had to press ahead with only the vague blurred images her eyes were providing. Matrix and Frisket were plodding on behind her, untroubled by the dim illumination. The light from Matrix's torch was enough for them to see clearly by. Unfortunately, the flickering shadows it cast on the floor, walls, and ceiling only served to disorient AndrAIa more. She heard something skitter off into the darkness, drawing her intense focus momentarily away from the floor. 

Matrix opened his mouth to shout a warning, but it was too late. That moment was all it took for her to step forward into open air. 

AndrAIa tried to scream as she toppled into the gaping pit in front of her, but all she could manage was a startled gasp as a strong arm wrapped itself around her waist, pulling her back to safety. He held her close for an instant, his heart still racing from her near miss. That was twice she'd almost been deleted now. What was wrong with her? 

AndrAIa forced herself to remain calm and slipped out of Matrix's grasp. "Thanks for the save," she said brightly. 

"Yeah," Matrix murmured in reply. His instincts were screaming that there was something very wrong with AndrAIa, but his mind refused to process the possibility. She'd told him she was fine, and that was that. She wouldn't lie to him. He trusted her. 

"How are we going to get across?" AndrAIa felt around for a small rock on the floor and tossed it into the pit, waiting for it to hit bottom. It never did. 

"I'm thinking." Matrix looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully. There were decorative carvings projecting outward from either wall. His hand went to the whip at his waist. "We'll use this." He pulled out the whip and flicked it out, wrapping the end securely around one of the carvings. "Who's first?" 

Frisket looked at the two of them, then at the whip in Matrix's hand. Giving one more glance at the hole in the floor, the big dog took a running leap over the pit and landed safely on the other side. "I guess that answers that question." Matrix said with what passed for a chuckle with him. "Shall we?" 

AndrAIa wrapped her arms tightly around his neck ad kissed him quickly on the cheek. "You bet." 

"Here we go!" Matrix leapt off the edge of the floor and swung them both to safety on the other side. Once there, he unhooked the whip from the carving and looped it back through his belt. "I think we're almost to the end." 

"Let's just hope we're ahead of the user." AndrAIa replied. 

---- 

The room they stepped into seemed more like a jungle than a temple. Large vines grew from cracks in the floor, creeping up the walls. The floor was made up of uneven stone cobbles. "I think there's one last trap before we get to the idol." Matrix commented. "If only I could remember what it was." 

Suddenly, a low grinding noise filled the room. "Um.....I think I found it." AndrAIa lifted her foot off of the cobblestone that had sunk into the floor. 

"I remember this now. Duck!" The two sprites dove forward as a volley of arrows shot from the walls above them and embedded themselves in the opposite wall. They lay there for a few moments, making sure the barrage had ceased before getting back on their feet. Matrix dusted his clothes off with a sigh of disgust. "I'm getting sick of this." 

"You and me both." AndrAIa commented wryly. "How much farther?" 

"We're there." Matrix answered, looking into the room ahead of them. AndrAIa was hanging onto his arm now, an unusual gesture for her. "What's wrong?" 

"Nothing...just a little shaken up. Too many close calls for my comfort. Let's get the idol and get out of this game." She made no move to release his arm. She was starting to realize just how big of a mistake she'd made in lying to Matrix about her condition. 

Matrix's brow furrowed in worry. The nagging little doubt he'd had earlier was now full-fledged suspicion. He resolved to get the truth out of AndAIa as soon they got out of the game and into a new system. He, AndrAIa and Frisket walked into the room that held the idol. 

The small gold statue was sitting on a pedestal in the center of the room, lit by a shaft of light flooding from a hole in the ceiling above. "Looks like we got here first." He reached over and took the statue, placing it into a bag on his belt. "Now all we have to do is get out of the temple. We take this passage." He turned down a wide hallway with a worn dirt floor. There was plenty of light and he could see the end of the tunnel. "We won't need this anymore.: Matrix stuck the torch into a wall mounted holder. 

A low rumble began to emmanate from some place far behind them in the temple. "That better not be what I think it is." The rumbling increased and the passage began to vibrate. Matrix glanced over his shoulder. 

"Better not be what?" 

"That!" He said, pointing behind them. The rumble had become a loud roar. 

"Enzo, I don't......oh!" Even with her vision damaged as it was, AndrAIa was able to make out the large boulder hurtling towards them at a fantastic speed. Frisket dashed out in front of them and they followed his lead, running as fast as they could through the long hall. 

"I don't think we're going to make it!" AndrAIa cried. Just then, the trio plunged into at a deep rut in the floor. They flattened themselves into the dirt as the boulder rolled over top of then, just brushing their backs as it did so. It continued rolling towards the exit unabated until it hit the narrow entrance, where it stuck fast. 

Matrix sat up, coughing from the dust and brushing at his clothes with his hands. It took him at a moment to notice the new sound echoing off the walls. AndrAIa sat at a few feet away, her hands over her face. She was crying. Sobbing hystericly, to be more precise. Frisket gave Matrix at a quisical look before trotting over to where the game sprite sat. He whined, trying to get her attention. 

"It's okay, Frisket." She patted the big dog on the head, wiping at her tears with the other hand. 

"AndrAIa?" Matrix put at a hand on her shoulder. 

"I'm okay, Enzo. It's nothing." 

"That's spam and you know it! You've been acting random this entire game. What's going on?" He barked. 

"Enzo, please. Can we do this _after_ we beat the game?" She stood up, shrugging off his assistance. 

"Fine," he mumbled. "But I expect answers. Help me find the alternate exit. It's around here somewhere." 

---- 

They exited the temple through at a cave neatly concealed behind a waterfall. There was a carved niche in the wall where the idol was to be placed. Matrix checked over their icons to make sure they were all in game sprite mode before taking the gold statue out of the bag and placing it on the shelf. 

**"Game Over."**

The game cube dissolved around them and they found themselves standing in s park at the center of at a new system. 

"Answers. Now. What was going on back there?" 

AndrAIa looked away from him. She couldn't see his face, but she could hear the angry scowl in his voice. "It's my eyes," she said softly. "I can't see anything, Enzo. It's all a blur, just color and shadow." 

"You told me you were okay! Have you gone totally random? I never should have let you into that game. Why didn't you tell me?" 

AndrAIa faced him defiantly. "Because I knew this is how you'd react! I was hoping it would get better before you noticed." Hot tears streamed down her face. "I didn't want to hold us up in that system." 

"You're going to at a Diagnostic program this nanosecond." He growled. "Come on." He took her by the arm and led her out of the park, Frisket tagging along behind. 

---- 

AndrAIa sat nervously on the examination table while the doctor shown a light from one eye to the other. 

"Well?" Matrix asked impatiently. 

"Not good, I'm afraid." The doctor replied, looking at the two sprites. They'd been forced to leave Frisket outside, and he'd been none too happy about it. "What did you say happened again?" 

"Concussion mine." 

"I must have been looking right at it." AndrAIa continued. "Can you...is there anything you can do for me?" 

The doctor shook his head. "I'm afraid not. Either your sight will return on its own, or it won't. All I can recommend is rest. Don't strain your eyes trying to see." 

"Thank you, anyway." AndrAIa sighed. She put her hand on Matrix's shoulder and hopped down off the table. "We appreciate your help." They left the room in silence. 

The doctor watched them leave and shook his head sadly. "What a shame." 

---- 

They walked away from the building hand in hand, a tense silence hanging between them. Finally, AndrAIa spoke up. " Guess we'd better find a place to stay. All in all, this seems like a pretty nice system. Not that I can _see_ any of it." She laughed. 

"How can you be so calm about this?" Matrix sounded angry and upset. "Your sight might not come back!" 

Her eyebrows drew together in a pained expression. "I'm _not_ calm Enzo. I'm completely devastated." She paused. "But there isn't anything I can do about it and you're upset enough for the both of us." 

Matrix clenched his free hand in a fist. If not for the comfort of AndrAIa's hand in his own, he might have punched it into the side of a building. He was frustrated and angry and there wasn't anything he could do. Before, there had always been a user or a virus to fight. But this wasn't a tangible thing, and he was helpless. 

Matrix hated feeling helpless. He looked back at AndrAIa, glad she couldn't see the rage on his face. Her own features were unreadable. What was she feeling? She'd been playing the calm to his storm for so long, he had to wonder, not for the first time, just what her carefree attitude had really cost her. 

She could feel the frustration radiating from Matrix and sighed inwardly. All she really wanted to do was cry, but she kept up her stolid front. She knew there were things she had to discuss with Enzo, but she also knew that trying to talk to him when he was this angry was pointless. 

Sometimes loving him was actually painful. He was so changed now, so different from the hyperactive sprite she'd first known that it was difficult to believe that they were the same person. How much had his quest cost him? He'd pushed himself to become better and stronger so that he'd never be beaten again. 

And so that he could protect her. But there was no protection from what had happened, and she could tell that that helplessness was tearing him apart. She didn't know how to even begin to reach him. His anger had become so all-encompassing and all-consuming that there was little left of the Enzo she'd known. Sometimes that frightened her a little. 

There was no disputing the fact that she loved him, and he her. They depended entirely upon each other, and no one else. But she was crippled now. She couldn't fulfill her role of silver lining to Enzo's dark storm cloud. She wasn't sure what would happen to them now. "Let's go to the P.O." she said. "Maybe they can help us out." 

End Part One 

Continue...

Back


	2. 2

Time scale:  
nanosecond=second  
microsecond=minute  
millisecond=hour  
cycle=day  
second=week  
minute=month  
hour=year

Part Two 

**"I am a protector.  
I sort through peoples and sectors  
searching for threats to my home. **

My Format: Command.com  
Of this place, Turing System.  
ReBoot!" 

The principal office was a tall spire of a building with a floating ring rotating around the upper tier of the structure. Matrix approached the guard posted outside the main entrance. "We need to see the Command.com." Matrix said. 

"Sorry, no admittance," the guard replied. "The Command.com is very busy at the moment and-" 

Matrix's artificial eye began to glow as he glared at the sprite. "Maybe you didn't hear me, I said-" 

AndrAIa put a restraining hand on Matrix's shoulder and whispered into his ear. "Let me handle this, Lover." 

She turned her attention to the tall sprite, putting on the most innocent face she could. "We're new in this system," she said sweetly, batting her eyelashes. "And we we're hopeing that the Command.com could help us." 

"Well..." the guard said, admiring AndrAIa. "I'll see what I can do." He left the two sprites on the front steps and slipped into the building. 

"I wish you wouldn't do that!" Matrix scowled. 

"Hey. It worked better than your approach." 

"I don't like them...looking at you like that," he muttered. 

"No worries," she said, kissing his cheek. "You know I'm all yours." 

Matrix sighed and put a protective arm around her waist. The guard returned. 

"You'll have to wait inside," he said. "Follow me." He lead the two sprites into a conference room with a long table ringed with chairs. "The Command.com will be with you as soon as possible." 

---- 

"You've been traveling in the games?" The Command.com blinked at the two sprites seated across from him. He hadn't had anything this interesting happen in Turing in a long time. "Well, Mr. Matrix, I'll see what I can do for you. We might have use for a sprite with your...expertise." He leaned across the table and shook Matrix's hand. "It was a pleasure meeting the both of you. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a system to run." The Command.com pushed his chair away from the table and stood to go. "I'll be in touch." He left the room, shaking his head as he entered his office. "A rogue Guardian and a game sprite. Incredible." 

---- 

The two sat in a small cafe they'd found, sipping energy shakes. "I think this is the closest we've ever come to settling down someplace," AndrAIa commented. 

"Yeah." Matrix mumbled. This system, Turing, reminded him a lot of Mainframe. "It's certainly the least damaged we've come across in a long time. And it looks as if the Command.com will be able to find some work for me." Matrix didn't sound exactly enthusiastic. 

AndrAIa reached across the table and took his large hands in her smaller ones. "I know you'd rather be out there looking for Mainframe," she said. "Hopefully, this will just be a temporary thing. Who knows? We could wind up staying for only a few cycles if my eyes get better..." 

**"Warning: Incoming Game."**

"Just what we needed." Matrix commented sarcastically, looking out the window at the game cube descending over the cafe. "Frisket," He said to the large dog lounging under the table, "I want you to take AndrAIa out of here." 

"Enzo! I'm not leaving you!" 

"Just do it!" He shouted, placing her hand on Frisket's collar. "Go on, boy." 

He watched as the two left the cafe and waited for the game to stabilize around him. 

He was standing in the middle of a large field. A low stone wall ran off to his left and there were a few scraggly trees dotting the bleak landscape. Matrix reached over and tapped his icon. "Reboot!" 

He was now dressed in full warrior garb, a large sword at his waist and shield strapped to his arm. "At least I'm not wearing a kilt this time." At that moment, Frisket bounded over the low wall. Someone had already rebooted his icon. "I guess this means AndrAIa didn't get out." The big dog cocked his head to the side and barked. Matrix surveyed the field. AndrAIa was no where to be seen. Matrix raised his arm. "Glitch, Game Stats." On his command the damaged Key tool began to spew game statistics. "Find and defeat the dragon, rescue the princess. Well, I guess that explains where AndrAIa went. Come on Frisket. We've got a user to beat." 

---- 

She'd rebooted her icon and ended up in a cave someplace, her hands and feet tied. "Cursors." Outside, something large, red, and vaguely dragon shaped stalked past the entrance. "I hate being the damsel in distress." She tried to get to her feet, only succeeding in toppling over onto her side with a thud. "Ow. Okay, bad idea." She twisted back into a sitting position. "Maybe I can find something to cut these ropes with..." 

---- 

Outside, Matrix surveyed the scene with dismay. The Dragon was huge! It had to be at least fifteen feet tall and twice as long. What's more, it was the fire breathing variety and it was guarding the entrance to it's cave jealously. "This is very bad." Seeing no way to sneak up on the dragon, Matrix gave a loud yell and charged down the hill. 

The dragon saw him coming and swung it's tail around, knocking the large sprite off his feet and into the base of a cliff. He had only an instant to bring his shield to bear before the dragon attempted to charbroil him. 

Inside the cave, AndrAIa redoubled her efforts to free herself of her bonds. She rubbed the rope around her wrists against a jagged outcropping of rock on the wall, trying to get it to fray enough for her to break the rope. 

Matrix crouched behind the now red hot shield, wondering how long the dragon could keep up the fiery onslaught. The heat radiating from the shield was beginning to burn his arm, but he'd be deleted instantaneously without it. He couldn't even take a swing at the scaly monster with his sword. 

With one final tug, the rope binding her wrists snapped. She then leaned over and quickly untied her ankles. AndrAIa searched the floor for something she could use to distract the dragon. Gathering several fist sized rocks, she made her way carefully to the entrance of the cave. 

Matrix caught a movement out of the corner of his eye. AndrAIa was standing at the mouth of the cave. What was she doing? "AndrAIa!" He yelled over the roar of the dragon's scathing attack. "Get out of here!" 

"And let you get barbecued? I don't think so, Lover." She hefted one of the rocks in her hand and hurled it at the dragon. She heard it bounce off the dragons tough hide. "Over here!!" She sent a few more chunks of stone in the red blur's direction. Finally, it turned towards her. 

Matrix watched as the dragon turned away from him and headed in AndrAIa's direction. He dropped the scorching shield and took off after it, swinging at the dragon with the sword. The blade bounced off, doing little damage. "Cursors." The dragon turned back at him, rearing up on it's hind legs and flapping it's wings. That's when he saw the blue diamond on it's underbelly.  
The dragon spat fire at him again and he rolled away, ending up under the beast. He trust the sword upward into the center of the diamond and sunk it in to the hilt. Above him, the dragon screeched and faded to oblivion. Matrix got to his feet and slid the sword back into the scabbard. He walked over to where AndrAIa stood. "I'm supposed, to rescue you now, but it look like you've got that covered." 

"So what's left, Lover?" 

"Just this." He leaned over and kissed her deeply. 

"Game Over." 

The purple game cube dissolved around them, leaving them standing in front of the cafe. 

---- 

"Ouch!" Matrix hissed as AndrAIa continued to bandage his arm. AndrAIa rolled her eyes and sighed. They were in the apartment that Dennis, the Command.com, had obtained for them. 

"Stop being such a baby." 

"It hurts!" He growled. 

"Of course it hurts! Those are some nasty burns there, Lover. You're lucky I saved your bitmap." She kidded. He grumbled some more as she finished bandaging his injured arm. "You poor baby." She took a seat in his lap and put her arms around his neck. "Should I make it all better?" She grinned, raising an eyebrow. 

---- 

AndrAIa yawned and stretched, bright light pouring in through the window. Next to her, Matrix was still sleeping soundly. She kissed his forehead and got up, careful not to disturb him. Frisket looked up from his spot by the door, saw nothing was amiss and laid his massive head back on his paws to doze some more. AndrAIa walked to the window and gazed out over the city, a blur of color and light to her eyes. It was still beautiful in it's own way, she supposed, but it wasn't the same as being able to see what was around her. For the first time since the accident, she let herself come to terms with what she had lost. She sank into a chair and rested her head on the table, tears leaking silently down her cheeks.. It was hard to keep from going to pieces, but she'd managed it for Matrix. He needed her to be strong. She, and his dream of finding Mainframe, were the only things that kept Enzo going anymore. If she crumbled, the fragile existence they'd managed to eke out in between the games would be shattered forever. If it hadn't been already. She knew that the mere thought of having to stay in one system for any length of time upset Matrix. To him, every cycle they spent in a system was another lost chance at making it home. She heard Matrix moving behind her and quickly wiped the tears from her face. 

"AndrAIa?" 

"I'm over here." She said as brightly as she could. "I didn't want to wake you. How's the arm?" 

"Better." He answered. "Anything wrong?" 

"No, of course not." She smiled, but her eyes remained sad. 

"Dennis wanted me to stop by the P.O." Matrix said, running a hand through his hair. 

"All right." She replied, looking out the window. "How long will you be?" 

"I don't know." The large sprite replied, sounding a little uneasy. "But I should get going. I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you came.." 

"Just go, Enzo. I'll be all right." 

---- 

"We had half the power grid crash last night." Dennis said, taping a few keys and bringing up a schematic of the city. Almost half the sectors flashed an angry red. "I've been trying all night and haven't been able to restore power. We're running on emergency power at the moment." Dennis sighed and ran his hands through his pale blue hair. "Every time I think I've got the last of the viral code out of the system...." He shook his head. "Something like this happens and I have to start over again." 

"Don't you have anyone helping you?" Matrix asked. Dennis obviously knew what he was doing, but he also seemed young to be carrying the mantle of Command.com. 

"I have Perl." Dennis replied. "But other than that? Not really. We lost a lot of good sprites this last time around." Matrix heard the despondent note in Dennis' voice and decided to leave things at that. 

"Well, let's try to get this grid up." 

After milliseconds of work, they'd finally tracked down the problem. "Here goes nothing." Dennis said, feeding a few commands into the central control. The two watched apprehensively for a moment before the blinking red lights on the display turned a steady green. "I think we did it." As if on cue, the other, previously stable half of the grid, crashed, plunging the P.O. into darkness. 

"Alphanumeric." Matrix commented sarcastically as Dennis took an LED from his belt to illuminate the room. 

"Looks like the emergency power is out too." Dennis commented wryly. "Which means we get to change all the settings manually this time." He touched a two way radio on his wrist. "You there, Perl?" 

"I'm here." Replied a soft feminine voice from the other end. "What are you doing in there? All the power is out here in Backup." 

"The other half of the grid crashed. See if you can get the emergency power back on line." 

"You got it, hun." The voice replied. "Try not to crash anything else while I'm working on it?" 

"We'll try." Dennis clicked the channel closed. "That's Perl for you." He said with a shrug. "Now let's see what we can do with these settings." 

End Part Two 

Continue...

Back


	3. 3

Time scale:  
nanosecond=second  
microsecond=minute  
millisecond=hour  
cycle=day  
second=week  
minute=month  
hour=year

****

"I come from the games.  
I search through systems, peoples, and cities,  
with this sprite,  
Matrix.  
My world.  


My Format: Game sprite. My place is at his side.  
ReBoot!" 

It was halfway through the day cycle, and they still hadn't gotten the power on-line. Perl hadn't been able to get the emergency power working either, so they'd been wedging themselves under consoles to make the adjustments. Dennis changed one last setting and the sprites watched as the P.O. powered up. "Well, it's about time." Dennis commented, sliding out from under the control panel. "Sorry about that. Turing is usually in better working order than this. We're having a bad cycle." The Command.com sounded tired. 

"Trust me, I've seen worse." Matrix replied grimly. "AndrAIa and I have seen some pretty corrupted systems." 

"Speaking of AndrAIa, where did she head off to? Don't tell me you left her sitting in that apartment all this time." 

"I-" Matrix rubbed the back of his neck and gave the Command.com a sheepish look. "I told her she could come if she wanted to..." 

Dennis waved off the attempted apology. "My fault. I should have extended the offer to both of you. I wasn't thinking." He tapped the radio on his wrist. "Perl, have you finished that security diagnostic I asked you to run?" 

"Everything checks out A-Okay." Piped Perl's voice over the link. "Got something else you want me to take a look at?" 

"Actually, I've got a different idea. Matrix and I have a handle on things here. I want you to go pick up Mr. Matrix's lady-friend. Give her a tour of the city." 

"Can do." Perl replied and broke off the connection. 

"Problem solved. Can't stand the thought of a lovely thing like her sitting in that gloomy apartment all day. Why don't you let her know Perl's coming and when that's done, I'll aquainte you with Turing's operating system." 

---- 

Three swift knocks sounded on the door to the apartment. "Who's there?" AndrAIa called. 

"It's Perl." A soft voice called back. "Dennis sent me to get you out of this apartment for awhile." 

AndrAIa walked over, unlatching the door. "Enzo told me you'd be coming." She opened the door and peered into the hallway at the figure. All she could make out was a blur of charcoal colored skin, purple hair, and red and black clothing. "You're Perl?" 

"Is there a problem with that?" The sprite asked good naturedly. 

"No, just-" 

"Not what you were expecting. I get that a lot." She laughed. "Who's Enzo, by the way?" 

"Uh, Enzo is Matrix's first name." She replied. "Don't call him that or he'll kill me." She smiled. Frisket had gotten up from his place near the bed and was glaring at the visitor. "It's okay, Frisket." AndrAIa patted him on the head. The dog stared once more at Perl, then sat at AndrAIa's feet. 

---- 

They were in the busy downtown district, Perl chattering away about everything happening around them. 

"It's pretty busy." AndrAIa commented. 

"This is nothing, hun. In a few seconds the festival will start and then things will really be swinging. People here are living while they can. No telling what might happen tomorrow." Despite her cheerful tone, there was an edge of battle-hardened bitterness to Perl's words AndrAIa couldn't help but notice. She'd heard it much to often in Matrix's voice. Perl guided AndrAIa around a group of vendors. "You seem to be coping fairly well for someone who's blind." Perl commented. 

"Dennis told you about that, huh?" 

" 'Course he did. Dennis tells me everything. I'm this system's security nowadays." Above them, thunder began to rumble ominously. A spattering of rain fell upon the inhabitants of the sector. "I don't like the looks of that," Perl said, glancing up at the sky. "I know someplace we can go to wait out the storm." 

A few blocks later, they ducked into a small diner. There were isolated mutters and a few sprite and binomes actually left as Perl entered the building, favoring the storm to the gray-skinned sprite's company. 

"What's going on?" AndrAIa asked, sensing the commotion. 

"Some people just don't like hackers," Perl replied, slipping into a booth. AndrAIa took a seat across from her and Frisket lay under the table. 

"You're a hacker?" 

"It was my second occupation, " Perl replied matter-of-factly. "The skills come in handy when you're in charge of system security. Not that that seems to matter to some of these people." She said with a note of distaste. 

"Second occupation....what did you do before that?" 

"I-" Perl was interrupted by the server. She ordered two energy shakes and continued. "I was a cadet at the Guardian Academy." 

"You were a guardian?" AndrAIa was beginning to suspect that the sprite across from her was full of interesting secrets. 

"A _cadet_," Perl reiterated. "I couldn't handle the protocols. You're looking at a bonified Guardian Academy drop out. When I left, I split that place so fast I didn't even turn in my keytool." 

AndrAIa's suspicion was proving right. "You still have a keytool." 

"Not anymore," she replied with a shake of her head. "Lotus was offlined in a fight with a virus awhile back. " 

"That's too bad," AndrAIa said. "Glitch was damaged when Enzo got it. I was hopeing you could help him fix it." 

"Sorry," Perl replied. "I wish I could. Believe me, a keytool is a great thing to have when you're fighting viruses. But enough about me." She laughed. "I want to hear about you. It's not often you run into a game sprite outside of a game." AndrAIa began to tell Perl the story, enjoying the woman's quiet interest in what she was saying. "You downloaded yourself into his icon?" Perl stared at her in amazement. "Pretty gutsy of you." 

AndrAIa shrugged. "We were both lonely. It seemed like a logical thing to do. I've never regretted a minute of it." 

"I don't think I could stick with anyone for that long." Perl said in the same frank tone she'd used earlier. "There's Dennis, but I can't help but think that if if our ports to the 'Net hadn't been destroyed this last time, that I'd have been gone by now. I never was one to stay in the same place for very long." The former hacker looked out the window. "Seems the storm has let up for now," she said, changing the topic. "We'll swing by Backup sector and then back to the principal office. I'm sure those boys are almost done with what they're doing by now." 

---- 

Dennis finished the tour of the P.O. and walked with Matrix back to the main control center. "That's Turing." Dennis commented. "It's a shame you didn't come along earlier. We could have used your help against the viruses." Dennis leaned against a console. "That problem, thankfully, seems to be over now that out 'Net ports have been destroyed." 

"You had ports to the 'Net?" 

"This used to be a top of the line system." Dennis said. "The viruses reduced it to the 2-bit wreck you see today. The last virus entered the system through the 'Net, destroyed the ports, and left us completely isolated. We're learning to be self-sufficient." He said with a touch of unhappiness. 

"Dennis? Where'd you get to?" Perl's voice rang from somewhere down the corridor. 

"We're in here." Dennis replied, sticking his head into the hall. "That woman wouldn't know stealth if it bit her in the bitmap." Dennis said wryly over his shoulder to Matrix. 

"I _heard_ that," Perl snapped, walking into the room. AndrAIa and Frisket followed her. "And you _know_ it's a load of spam." 

The first thing Matrix noticed about the woman was that she was the exact opposite of what he'd been expecting. Her skin was a dark, smooth gray, only a few shades lighter than black. Her hair was long, a deep purple specked with red. She had the confident poise of a soldier. The second thing he noticed was her icon. 

"You're a Guardian?" He asked in disbelief. 

Perl glanced down at her yellow and black icon and scowled. "Ex-guardian," she replied. "I don't follow those protocols anymore." 

"Perl's in charge of security around here," Dennis interjected. 

"And don't you forget it," Perl said, poking Dennis in the center of the chest with her index finger. "You'd be toast if I hadn't come along." 

"Did you enjoy your tour?" Dennis asked AndrAIa, pointedly ignoring Perl's comment. 

AndrAIa nodded. "Perl's a wonderful guide." She walked over to where Matrix stood and he instinctually put a protective arm around her waist. 

"Sorry we took so long," Matrix whispered "The system isn't in as good of condition as t looks." 

"It's okay," she replied, leaning her head on his shoulder. Dennis was giving Perl a run-through of what they'd done. 

"We got the power grid back up, but emergency generators are offline. Still, it's better than nothing." 

Matrix and AndrAIa decided to leave the other sprites to their work and headed back to their apartment. "Did you have a good time?" Matrix asked after several uncomfortable moments. 

"Yeah. Perl was very interesting." 

"Did she tell you _why_ she's not a guardian anymore?" 

"She was only ever a cadet," AndrAIa replied. "She dropped out and became a hacker." 

"A hacker? Dennis lets a _hacker_ run his security?" 

AndrAIa shrugged. "We let Mouse-" 

"Mouse was different." 

"Why? Because Bob trusted her? Maybe Dennis has reason to trust Perl." 

"Or he's lonely. This system isn't exactly crawling with sprites." 

"Enzo!" AndrAIa said, shocked. "Is that the reason you keep me around? Because there isn't anyone better?" She turned her back to him. 

"AndrAIa, I didn't- That's not what I meant." 

"I'm not sure I should believe you," she said in a hurt voice. "After all, I'm the reason you're stuck here when you could be out looking for Mainframe." 

"AndrAIa...I never..." He put a hand on her shoulder, but she pulled away and glared at him. 

"Fine! If that's the way you want to play it," he yelled angrily. He turned on his heel and left the apartment, slamming the door behind him. Frisket looked at AndrAIa and whimpered. She sighed and opened the door. "Go on." The big dog bounded out the door and after Matrix. AndrAIa walked back into the apartment and sank onto the stasis bed, hot tears stinging her cheeks. 

---- 

Matrix walked through the powered down city, kicking scraps of litter out of his way and muttering to himself. Frisket trotted along at this side fatefuly. "I don't know how she could possibly think-" He punctuated the unfinished sentence with a swift kick to the wall. Frisket whimpered at him. "Has she gone basic?" He asked the dog. Frisket cocked his head to the side and gave Matrix a strange look. "I'm the one who's basic," he mumbled. "I'm talking to a dog." He sighed and wondered what had gotten into AndrAIa. There was no reason for her to blow up at him like that. She'd taken his comment completely out of context and twisted it into something he'd never implied. He could sense that she was unhappy, but there wasn't a thing he could do about it. He'd see her melancholy face out of the corner of his eye, but the second he turned to look at her, she was all smiles and jokes again, as if nothing had ever happened. He didn't know if it was denial on her part, or a simple inability to let him know how she felt, but he didn't know how to deal with it and that just frustrated him. He clenched his fists, wishing he knew what to do. 

---- 

Dennis sat at his kitchen table, tapping things into his organizer despite the late time. Perl sat across from him, an array of vidwindows spread out around her. She scrolled through system logs and security readouts, trying to figure out what had caused the power to crash. One by one, she shut the windows down. "We're not finding anything, and I _know_ you didn't get any sleep last cycle." 

Dennis noticed the edge of annoyance in her voice and shut the organizer down. "What's the matter?" 

"Nothing," she said apologetically. "It's late. Maybe I should just go home." 

"Don't leave on my account. If something is bothering you, tell me." He shrugged. "I might be able to help, you know." 

"You're going to think this is stupid." She reached out and took his hand in her own, his yellow skin glowing against her dark gray hand; contrasting like day and night. "It's those kids." 

Dennis smiled. "Kids? They're not much younger than we are." 

Perl shook her head. She'd taken her hair out of the ponytail and it fanned out around her shoulders, cascading down her back in amethyst waves. "There's something about them..." Her voice trailed off. "Something just not right." 

"They lost their system. That's enough to make anyone 'not right'." 

Perl leaned forward on one elbow and looked at Dennis with earnest eyes. "I lost my system." 

"You _left_ your system. You could have gone back, had you wanted to. They don't have that option. I feel sorry for them." He got up and walked over behind her, massaging her neck and shoulders. She winced slightly as his hand moved over a deep scar slashed into her back. "Sorry," he said, seeing her reaction. "Those still bothering you?" 

"A little." Perl sighed. She'd been injured fighting the last virus that had ravaged the system. Three of the deep cuts ran parallel, starting on the back of her left shoulder and running downward and diagonal across her back. It was a credit to her determination that she still had the use of her left arm. "I guess you're right," she said, thinking over what he'd said. "Still, there's something that just....bugs me. And I don't think Matrix likes me very much." 

"He doesn't even know you, Perl. Don't let it get to you." 

Perl sighed again. "Yeah, just like I don't let the cold shoulder that half the system gives me get to me." 

Dennis leaned over and kissed her forehead. "I'm sorry about that." 

"Don't be. What about AndrAIa?" She asked, switching topics. "Is there anything we can do for her?" She looked over her shoulder at the Command.com. He shook his head. 

"She's seen a diagnostic program. From what Matrix told me, it sounds permanent." 

"That's a shame," she said sadly. She saw the grieved look on Dennis' face and knew they were both thinking the same thing. 

---- 

The system outside the window was dark and a cold breeze blew into the room. She shivered and shut it, walking away from the darkness outside, but not the darkness burning in her heart. 

She was in pieces, torn apart by the loneliness and abandonment she felt. Half the night cycle had ticked itself away and Matrix had not returned. Some ugly, hateful part of her was whispering that he never would. That she was damaged now and he had left her, setting her adrift without any ties, without an identity. Her whole world was defined by him. Without Enzo, her center couldn't hold and she'd be sucked inward by a black hole of sadness and despair. Every moment he was out of her sight was another instant her life hung precariously balanced between happiness and painful oblivion. 

She'd never felt more lost in her entire life. It struck a cord of terror in her she'd never known before. How many nights had she lay awake in his arms, wondering what her place was? She always came up with the same answer: her existence was justified by her love for Enzo -and his for her- and that alone. 

She sat on the small couch in their living room, hands clasped tightly, tears streaming from her blind, staring eyes, shaken and terrified to the absolute core of her being. 

End Part Three 

Continue...

Back


	4. 4

Time scale:  
nanosecond=second  
microsecond=minute  
millisecond=hour  
cycle=day  
second=week  
minute=month  
hour=year  


**Chapter Four**

****

**"I come from the 'Net.  
I traveled through systems and cities,  
To this place.  
Turing.  
Perhaps, some cycle, my home.  
**

**My format? I have no format.  
I am a wanderer, without protocols.  
ReBoot!"**

Dawn was breaking outside when Matrix and Frisket came back to the apartment. He found AndrAIa asleep on the couch and picked her up, carrying her into the bedroom. He put her to bed and closed the door behind him. He sat down on the couch head in his hands. Something had gone terribly wrong here, and he couldn't think of a thing he could do to fix it. A great gulf had opened up between AndrAIa and himself. Frisket nosed him, whining. Matrix patted the dog's head casually. "What am I going to do?" He mumbled angrily. He didn't want to lose her, but he could practically feel her slipping from his grasp. And as much as he hated to admit it, the thought of life without her scared him. He sighed, tired and frustrated, then stretched out on the couch to try and get some sleep. A few milliseconds later, he was awoken by a vidwindow. He sat up and blinked his eyes for a nano. 

"I'm sorry," Dennis replied from the window. "Did I wake you?" 

"What? No." Matrix ran his hands over his face. "I was just going to get up anyway. What can I do for you Dennis?" 

"Perl and I have been getting some anomalous readings from the power core. We could use AndrAIa's and your help here." 

"AndrAIa's not feeling well," Matrix lied. He didn't want to drag the Command.com into his personal problems. "But I'll come give you a hand." 

Dennis frowned slightly, as if he sensed Matrix wasn't telling him the truth, but said simply, "I'm sorry to hear that. Tell her I hope she feels better soon, and Perl and I will meet you at the P.O. in say, thirty micros?" 

Matrix nodded. "I'll see you then." 

Thirty micros later, the three of them were gathered in the principal office, going over the core power log from last night. "You can see that we've been having strange power fluctuations." Dennis pointed to a spot on the readout. "This is when the grid crashed the first time. And when we tried to reinitiate it, the power drain caused the other half to crash. What we don't know is what's draining the power." 

"You ran a viral scan?" Matrix asked. 

"Yes," Perl replied. "I ran it twice. Nothing. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm as in the dark about this thing as you two are. I think our best bet is-" Before she could finish the sentence, the lights in the P.O. flickered and failed. 

In the dim illumination of the emergency lights, Perl saw Dennis roll his eyes. "You just had to make that \lquote in the dark'crack, didn't you?" He took his ever ready LED off of his belt and handed it to Matrix. He then pulled out his organizer. 

"What are you doing?" 

"My organizer has its own power supply. I can use it to scan the P.O. and find out what's happened." He was silent for a few nanos as he initiated the scan. "Uh oh." 

"What is it, Dennis?" Perl asked. 

"Someone or something has cut the main power supply from the core. In stead of running to Turing like it should be, it's going..." He paused. "Someplace else. I can't pinpoint it with just the organizer." 

"This is bad," Matrix said dryly. 

Dennis looked up at Matrix, face glowing strangely in the light from the LED. "Very bad. If we don't restore core power, Turing will crash, and we'll all be deleted. Matrix, I want you and Perl to head down to the sub-basement. See if you can find out where the supply cable has been cut, and try to restore it. I'll stay here and try to keep everyone calm and track down where all this power is going." 

Perl and Matrix nodded. "This way. The lifts are out, so we'll have to take the stairs." She opened a metal hatchway and started down into the dark. 

---- 

AndrAIa woke, momentarily disorientated. She was in the bedroom now. Matrix must have come home at some point, but he wasn't there now. Frisket was laying in front of the couch when she walked into the living room. Something wasn't right and she could sense it. "Come on, Frisket. Let's go to the P.O. and find out what's going on." She made her was carefully through the streets of Turing. Although it was now mid-cycle, no one was out. The entire system seemed deserted. When she arrived at the main control room, Dennis had his back to her, discussing something with a binome over a vidwindow. He shut the window down, the conversation apparently over, and she cleared her throat. 

"AndrAIa?" Dennis asked in surprise. "What are you doing here?" 

"Trying to figure out what's going on. Why is everything deserted?" Dennis began to explain the situation to her, beginning with the power fluctuations and ending with Perl and Matrix's mission to the sub basement. "I'm going after them," she said when he'd finished. 

"No you're not. You are in no condition to be heading out into the unknown. I'm sure Perl and Matrix can handle whatever they come up against. You can stay here and help me reroute emergency power if you'd like," he added after seeing the disappointed look on her face. 

"All right," she conceded. "What do we need to do?" 

---- 

Water trickled from pipes overhead as Matrix and Perl made their way further and further into the principal office's basement. Matrix was using Glitch to pinpoint the location of the power cable. 

"It sure is nice to have a keytool around again," Perl commented. "Even one as fragmented as yours, Guardian." 

"I'm not a guardian," Matrix replied in the same tone Perl had used the cycle before. 

"Well, I guess that makes us even, Hun. Maybe together we constitute one whole Guardian." She laughed, ducking under some low-hanging pipes. "Watch your head." 

They reached the bottom level and Perl glanced over at Matrix. "Which way now?" 

"We go right. We should be reaching the power junction soon." The two continued down the corridor, either wall and the ceiling crowded with the pipes and conduits that made up the heart of Turing system. 

"This place is a nightmare," Perl commented. "Anything could be lurking down here, and you'd never know it \lquote till it was breathing down your neck." Steam hissed from a nearby pipe causing her to jump. She reached down and took her gun from the holster on her thigh. Its weight was reassuring in her hand. Matrix had already brought his own gun to bear, and his artificial eye glowed eerily in the dim light. Something scuttled across the passage a ways in front of them. 

"The junction should be a few dozen yards ahead and to our left," Matrix said, glancing at Glitch. "The passage widens up here." 

The two sprites stepped forward into the corridor which doubled in width. Something in the inky gloom ahead of them hissed. Perl stiffened, on full guard now. "Please let that be another steam vent." She shown the LED into the darkness ahead of them. The beam bounced back, reflecting a large, sinister set of eyes. "Cursors!" Perl yelled, opening fire. There was a horrible screeching noise and a crash as her target fled further into the sub-basement. Perl leaned against the wall, panting. 

"What in the 'Net was that?" Matrix asked. The strange screech still rung in his ears. 

"That," Perl said, "should not be here." She touched the two-way radio on her wrist. "Dennis?" 

"Copy, Perl. Did you find the power cable yet?" 

"No. But we did find something else." Her tone was grim. 

"What did you find?" 

"A virus." 

"That's impossible. The scans came back negative. You ran them yourself! It _can't_ be a virus...unless-" 

"Unless the virus scan itself is corrupted. We have a major problem brewing here. Matrix and I are going to see if we can find that cable, then return to the main control center. We need to work out a plan of action. If there\rquote s one virus here, there may be more." She clicked off the radio and turned to Matrix. "You ready?" 

Matrix nodded and they started to search for the power junction. They came across the severed cable shortly there after, but couldn't find where the power was being drained from. Perl scanned the blackness around them with growing apprehension. "Let's get out of here. It's not safe to be wandering around down here with a virus lurking about-" 

She was cut off abruptly as a shadowy figure lept from the darkness and threw her into the wall. She scrabbled for her gun but it went skittering out of her reach. A sharp taloned hand grabbed her throat and began to squeeze. 

"You hurt me, Hacker," the virus hissed, reptilian eyes shining with an evil light. "I shall enjoy killing you." He squeezed harder, the edges of his claws digging painfully into the back of her neck. Perl struggled as her air supply was shut off. She got in one good kick to the virus'midsection and it lost it's grip on her neck. That was all the time she needed to roll away and grab her gun. She fired once and caught the virus in the shoulder. Firing again, she backed away from the hulking virus. It stumbled and fell. Perl collapsed against the wall, trying to catch her breath and assessing the damage the virus had done. Blood was trickling down her neck and back from several gashes. Matrix paused to make sure she was all right before walking over to the fallen virus. Perl's second shot had crippled the creature, and it lay there staring up at him with a pained smile on it's lizard-like face. "Guardian..." it hissed. Matrix's face twisted in rage and a sound like the dry rattling of tree limbs filled the room. The virus was laughing at him. He aimed his gun at the virus'head. 

"Say goodbye, Virus," he growled. His finger moved on the trigger. 

Perl cried out as she saw the virus lift one viciously taloned hand and swiped at Matrix. The large green sprite jumped backward, and the claws only grazed him, rending the front of his shirt to ribbons and scratching the skin beneath lightly. A thin line of blood oozed from his abdomen. Giving the virus one last hateful look he pulled the trigger and splattered its head across the floor of the tunnel before it faded away altogether. He looked up at Perl. "Let's get out of here." 

---- 

The two sprites emerged from the metal hatchway tired and bleeding. Dennis caught sight of them first and ran over to take Perl, who was leaning heavily on Matrix's shoulder, from the large green sprite. "What happened?" 

"We were ambushed," Matrix growled. He looked across the room and saw AndrAIa standing at one of the consoles. "AndrAIa. What are you doing here?" 

"I'm helping Dennis reroute power. Are you okay?" A worried look crossed her face. 

"I'm fine," he replied gruffly. "It's just a scratch." 

Dennis looked up at Matrix. "Perl needs medical attention, a first aid kit at least. Can you try to find something while I stay here?" 

Matrix nodded and left the room. Dennis brought Perl over to a chair and removed her long sleeved jacket. He sighed. "It looks like you're going to have a few more scars to add to the collection." He tore a strip of fabric off of the sleeve and dabbed at the bloody mess on Perl's back. Perl sucked air in sharply through her teeth. "You're lucky the virus didn't reopen any of these old scars." 

AndrAIa hovered a few feet away. "Is she going to be okay?" 

"Don't worry about me." Perl replied in a pained tone. "It'll be a cold cycle in the web before a virus gets the better of me." She tried to smile but ended up grimacing instead. 

Matrix returned with a first aid kit and handed it to Dennis. He stopped short and stared at the marks on Perl's back. "What happened?" 

"Those are from the last time I fought these sons of webcreatures. They nearly crashed Turing. I thought we'd deleted them all, but it looks like I was wrong." Her face contorted in pain as Dennis continued to work on her back. 

"There. All done for now. Were you able to see where the power was being drained to?" 

"Not before we were ambushed," she sighed. "And I wouldn't risk going back down there today. We've made them pretty angry, I'd venture." 

"Well, we've rerouted most of the power, so only a couple sectors are compromised. What we need to do now is come up with a plan of action." 

---- 

The four of them sat down at the round table in the conference room just off of Dennis' office. Dennis rubbed a weary hand across his face before speaking. He'd gotten no sleep in the last two cycles and the fatigue was starting to show. "We've got a major problem," he sighed. "The main power is being siphoned off to the User knows where, and it looks like the viruses are the culprit. From Perl and Matrix's descriptions, it seems that they are the same viruses we fought last time." He paused before continuing. "They work as a hive, a collective intelligence, which makes them all the harder to defeat. If one finds out what we're up to, they all know. Instantly. They know we've deleted their ally and they'll want revenge." 

Everyone at the table was silent for a moment. After a few nanos, AndrAIa spoke up. "You said you've fought these viruses before. Have you been able to discover any of their weaknesses? Something we can exploit?" 

"They're sensitive to certain sound frequencies," Perl said. "But we haven't been able to come up with a good way of utilizing that knowledge." 

AndrAIa's eyebrows drew together in thought. "Does the P.O. have a MIDI player? Or a way to transmit sound throughout the building?" 

Dennis nodded. "Why?" He asked curiously. 

"I think I have a plan." 

---- 

It was almost half way through the night cycle by the time they'd gotten everything ready. The plan was simple. Play back the frequencies the viruses were vulnerable to throughout the P.O., and hopefully keep them at bay long enough to locate the source of the power drain. Dennis signaled, and everyone slid on their headsets, both to protect them from the high pitch sounds and to allow them to communicate with one another. Dennis entered the command, and the eerie, screeching noise resonated throughout the building. 

"Can everyone hear me?" Dennis asked over the headset. Everyone answered in the affirmative. "Good. Let's get this show on the road." Dennis, Perl and Matrix headed for the hatchway into the basement of the building. "Let us know as soon as you've got something, AndrAIa." 

The game sprite nodded and turned to the controls. She\rquote d grudgingly agreed to stay behind in the command center, but only after a brief argument with Enzo and some polite, if forceful, persuasion form Dennis. The Command.com had rigged up the controls to give her audio feedback over the headset so that she could relay them the information they needed despite her inability to read the displays. 

Micros ticked by. The control room was dark, gray, featureless gloom around her, and the head set channel was quiet except for the occasional ping. She was getting a strange, disjointed feeling, as if she were cut off from the rest of the environment, floating in an empty void. She shivered, and tried to shake off the feeling. "System," she said, "Locate sprites." 

"Sprites are on sub-level four." Replied the same emotionless, artificial voice that announced the arrival of game cubes in Turing. 

AndrAIa sighed. "Scan for viruses." Perl had been trying to rebuild the corrupted viral scan, but no one had any idea how effective it would be, or if it would work at all. 

**"Virus found,"** intoned the voice over the headset. 

"Location." 

**"Viruses detected on sub-levels 3-9." **

AndrAIa switched channels on her headset. "Virus scan picked up viruses on your level, guys," she said. "Better keep an eye out." 

"Thanks AndrAIa." Matrix's voice came back over the headset, strangely hollow sounding. 

---- 

The trio walked cautiously through the labyrinthine corridors of the principal office's sub-basement. Matrix kept a watchful eye on the surroundings, though his mind was really miles away. 

He'd fought with AndrAIa again. They had their disagreements from time to time, of course (who didn\rquote t?) but they'd never argued this fiercely before, or this often. He felt slivers of their fragile existence slipping through his fist like grains of sand. His frown deepened as he walked onward. This time, she'd wanted to come down here, to this hot, oppressive darkness with them to find the source of the power siphon. He shook his head, trying to force away the angry words. 

---- 

_"I can take care of myself, Enzo!" She all but screamed. Dennis and Perl could hear her in the next room, but she ceased to care anymore. She couldn't keep up a happy facade a nano longer. _

_"You're _blind,_ AndrAIa." _

_"I haven't forgotten that! How could I? You bring it up every other micro! No, I can't see. That doesn't mean I've stopped compiling! And I certainly don't need you treating me like a child." _

_"You are being completely unreasonable," he shouted back. "I'm trying to protect you!" _

_"Protect me? You're the reason we're stuck here in the first place. If you hadn't lost-" She stopped mid-sentence, stunned silent at what she'd just said. She watched a shocked expression spread across Matrix's face. Then his eyes narrowed to slits and her turned away from her. _

_"Low blow, AndrAIa," he muttered, not really speaking to her anymore. "Fine. Come with us. Get yourself deleted. I don't care anymore." _

_"Enzo, I never meant..." Her eyes brimmed with tears. She tried futily to blink them away. She reached out to put a hand on his arm, but he snatched her wrist and held her fast. _

_"Go," he growled. _

_"Oh, Enzo." Tears spilled down her face. _

_"I said go!!" He released her arm and gave her a brusque shove towards the door. "You're the star of this thing anyway. _You go find the siphon." 

AndrAIa turned and fled the room. 

--- 

The other members of the party were also lost in thought. Dennis knew it wasn't his place to get involved. It was obvious that there was much more going on between the two game-hopping sprites than just AndrAIa's disability. He had felt the tension between them the moment they'd met, but their argument earlier that evening had finally revealed how strained things actually were. Dennis sighed, knowing full well that there was little he could do, and picked his way down the hall. Perl touched his shoulder hesitantly, and looked into his eyes, silently reassuring him. 

"We go right here," Matrix said, breaking the silence that echoed over the headsets. They turned the corner and stopped in their tracks. 

"Well," Dennis said, "I think it's safe to say we found it." 

"What _is_ that?" Matrix asked, circling the object they'd found. It was massive, filling the center of the room and towering over the three sprites. It was cylindrical in shape, filled with a pulsing blue light that cast flickering shadows on the wall. 

"I don't know," Perl said, analyzing the structure. "I've never seen anything like this!" She circled it a few more times. "But I can probably figure it out...given time." 

"Time is something we don't have," Matrix interjected, watching the shadowy reaches of the sub-basement. Something was moving slowly in the far corners, closing slowly inward. 

"They must have adapted to the noise somehow!" Dennis switched channels on his headset. "We've got a problem here, AndrAIa. The viruses seemed to have adapted to the frequency we're using!" 

"How is that possible?" Came AndrAIa's startled response from the other end. 

"I don't know. Try switching the sound frequency...anything. We need to buy Perl enough time to figure out what this contraption is doing to the core!" 

"I'm on it," the game sprite replied. "Be careful." 

Dennis and Matrix stood with their backs to the power siphon, watching the encroaching viruses. The reptilian creatures'eyes gleamed in the light from the machine. 

"Gun, command line: Full delete." Matrix began firing at the advancing viruses. Several fell, but there were more lurking in the shadows. 

"AndrAIa! How about that frequency change?" Dennis yelled into his headset, firing his own gun at the viruses. "AndrAIa?" 

There was no response. 

---- 

She was knocked off her feet as a sharp clawed hand hit her squarely in the back and cut into her arm. She hit the floor hard, and her headset was knocked from her head. She immediately clapped her hands over her sensitive ears to try and shut out the piercing whine that filled the principal office. She looked upward and saw a large dark blur towering over her. AndrAIa scrambled away from it, but wound up with her back to a console. She was trapped. Instinctively, she retrieved her retracted trident, readied her grip, and squeezed the handle. The weapon sprung out to it's full length and she heard the virus scream as it's three sharp tines pierced it's body and pinned it to the wall. She then felt around the floor on her hands and knees until she found her headset. 

"I'm changing the frequency now, Dennis." 

"What happened?" 

"Had a little uninvited guest. It's taken care of. Switching frequencies....now!" 

The three sprites in the basement watched as the viruses cringed and retreated. 

"It's working," Matrix broke in. "But I don't know for how long. Perl, how are things coming?" 

"I think I've got it figured out. They're trying to build up enough energy to open a portal to the 'Net. " 

"I thought you said _they_ destroyed all your ports to the 'Net." 

"They did." She shrugged. Her dark skin looked eerie in the blue glow. "As far as I can tell, they're trying to high-tail it out of here fast as they're able." 

"Well, what can you do to stop them?" Dennis asked. 

"Not too sure, Hun. Shut this thing down, I guess." She studied the controls for a moment. "Guardian, can you scan this for me?" Matrix frowned, but did as she asked. Perl studied the readouts. "Okay." She tapped some of the controls. "That _should_ do the trick." 

---- 

**"Warning: Core crash imminent,"** intoned the system's automated voice. 

"What?" AndrAIa changed channels on the headset. "What are you guys doing down there? The core is crashing!" 

"Cursors!" She heard Perl shout. AndrAIa stood by helpless, hopeing the other three could keep them all from being deleted. 

**"Warning: Core crash imminent."**

---- 

Perl taped furiously at the controls. 

"What happened?" Matrix asked. 

"The core must have been unstable. When I cut the feed, the backlash caused the whole thing to collapse in upon itself!" She uttered a few more curses, and kicked the machine in rage. A few more adjustments and the power siphon was back on-line. 

"I don't know what you did, but it's working!" AndrAIa called over the headset. 

Matrix muttered under his breath. "Perl just re-initiated the power drain. We're back to square one." 

"Cursors. What are we going to do now?" 

"Try and taper the flow off slowly. Give the core time to adjust." Perl looked over at her two male escorts. "This'll all be for nothing if we've still got those viruses on the loose. You two go hunt \lquote em down, and I'll get this hunk of junk taken care of." 

"We can't just leave you here!" Dennis protested. 

"Dennis," the hacker said, "I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself. Now go." 

---- 

"So..." Matrix commented, as they headed further into the bowels of the building. "Do we have a plan? Or are we going to walk in and start shooting?" 

"They're viruses," Dennis said with a hate and bitterness that surprised even Matrix. "Why shouldn't we?" He saw the shocked expression on the other sprite's face and sighed. 

"You have to understand," He said slowly, "that we've been doing this for minutes. I might normally have had more compassion, but now? I'm tired of spending every nano of my life wondering where the next threat will come from, when I'll have to try to keep us all from being deleted again." Perhaps it was the sickly light from the LED, but Dennis suddenly looked very old, and very tired. "All I want to do is get this over with." 

Matrix nodded silently and the two continued down the hallway. 

End Part Four

Continue...

Back


	5. 5

Time scale:  
nanosecond=second  
microsecond=minute  
millisecond=hour  
cycle=day  
second=week  
minute=month  
hour=year  


**Chapter Five**

All in all, the fight with the viruses had been short, if brutal. There had only a handful of them left, holding out in hopes of escaping through the portal they intend to build, and crash the system as a parting gift to the citizens of Turing. Dennis had a ugly feeling in the pit of his stomach as he and Matrix returned to the control room. He never wanted to be the cause of such death and destruction, even if the dead were viruses who'd been bent on the destruction of the system. 

Perl had already returned and was busy bandaging the cut on AndrAIa's arm. Her trident was still buried in the wall. 

"What happened?" 

"One of the viruses paid AndrAIa a little visit," Perl said dryly. "As revenge, I guess. We delete one of theirs, they take out one of ours." 

"Well, we won't have that problem anymore," Matrix said, walking over and putting a hand on AndrAIa's shoulder. "Are you okay?" 

"Fine, Lover." Her voice was light and unconcerned, but her eyes were strangely flat looking. 

"Did you get the core repaired?" Dennis asked quietly. The Command.com was so exhausted he looked as if he were going to collapse on the spot. Perl, who had only gotten marginally more sleep than him in the last few cycles, didn't look much better. 

"It's not going to crash, if that's what you mean." She smiled weakly. "But we've got a lot of work to do in order to restore power. " She looked over their rag-tag bunch of defenders and sighed. "It can definitely wait until we've all gotten some much needed downtime." 

"Agreed," Dennis replied wearily. "Everyone go home, and we'll meet back here no earlier than 09:00 hours. 

---- 

Matrix sat on the edge of the bed, staring into space. AndrAIa touched his shoulder lightly. "Come to bed. You're exhausted." 

Matrix didn't move. "Something is wrong, isn't it?" It wasn't really a question. He heard AndrAIa sigh behind him. 

"It's not something we need to talk about right now," she said softly. He opened his mouth to reply, but she continued. "And it's _much_ too late to fight about it." She sounded tired, both physically and emotionally drained. "Everything will be all right," she continued, only half believing her own words. 

Matrix sighed and laid down, putting his arms around AndrAIa as she lay her head on his chest. "I love you," he said, stroking her hair with his hand. 

"I know." It came out as a whisper as she struggled to keep her voice from cracking. In the darkness, Matrix couldn't see the tear that slid down her cheek. 

---- 

"It's over, Dennis. Quit without saving. Done. And we won." 

"I know, Perl. I just can't..." He paced the length of the bedroom. "...I wish there had been another way. I don't like killing." 

"But you also know you couldn't do a thing about it. Those viruses wouldn't have given deleting you a second thought. " She was perched on the edge of a dresser inspecting the cuts on her back and neck in the mirror. "And quit with the pacing already! You're driving me completely random." She taped a fresh bandage over the wounds. 

"Tell me," Dennis said, stopping at her side. "Are all the other hackers a pleasant as you are?" 

Perl laughed aloud. "Since when have I been like anyone else?" 

"Since never." He scooped her up in his arms, a bit awkwardly, as she was almost as tall as he was. "It's why I love you so much." 

"And here I thought it was my amazing skills!" 

"Those too," he smiled. Perl laughed then stifled a yawn. 

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm dead tired. You look like you could use some major down time yourself." 

Dennis smiled and set her down on the bed. "And here I thought _I_ was the practical one." 

"I'm just full of surprises, love. You ain't seen nothing yet!" She reached over and shut out the lights. 

Somewhere in the darkness, Perl was sure she heard something hiss. She leaned her head against Dennis' shoulder and tried to slow the frantic beating of her heart. 'It's all over, Girl.' She told herself. 'It's all in your head now.' Imagination or no, Perl knew she'd get no sleep that night, and for several nights to come. 

---- 

Dennis closed his organizer and looked at the binomes assembled before him. "I want the entire basement of this building thoroughly searched. Make sure our viral friends haven't left us any nasty surprises. Is that clear?" 

"Yes, Sir!" Replied the 0 binome in charge. 

"Good." Dennis motioned to a sprite with pale green skin standing off to one side. "I want you to lead the search." 

The sprite snapped to attention. "Yes, Sir!" He replied briskly. 

"Good, now get going." Dennis sighed as he watched them file out of his office. "One down..." He opened a vidwindow. "Perl, how are things going with the core?" 

"Better than expected, hun." A smile spread across her dark features, something that had become a rarity. "Should be back to 100% operational by cycle's end." 

"Glad to hear it. How are Matrix and AndrAIa faring?" 

"Not as well, unfortunately. I had to hack a lot of code on that worthless machine to take it off line. I don't know if we'll ever get it workin' again." She sighed heavily. 

"Are you okay?" 

"Yeah." She silenced him with a wave of her hand. "Didn't sleep well." She gave him a half-hearted smile. "Better let you go. You've got a system to run." 

Dennis smiled. "Don't remind me. I'll check on you later." 

"You do that." She clicked the window shut and went back to her workstation. This was where she belonged, she knew. No matter how much her guardian protocols called to her, even after all this time, the lure of the hacker's trade was stronger. It was part of the reason she'd quit the academy so close to graduation. And she was good at it, too. Not the best, but certainly better than most. Vic Script's little girl had always tried to excel. A frown crossed her face as she thought of her father. She'd been too ashamed to go home after she'd dropped out. She wondered briefly where he was now, and what he'd heard about her. 

She shoved away the wave of nostalgia and focused on the algorithms in front of her. Being Turing's head of security (and the bulk of it's maintenance crew) was the perfect life for her. It gave her a delicate balance between the guardian need to "Mend and Defend', and the lure of the codes. 

"Cursors!" Matrix's voice boomed through the room, accompanied by a clang as he dropped the screwdriver he'd been using. 

Perl swung her chair around to the other side of the workstation. "Problems?" 

"I can't get this blasted panel off! I keep smacking my knuckles against the housing." He was lying on his back beneath the portal generating device. "I think some of this circuitry is fried." 

AndrAIa hopped down from the console she'd been perched on. "Let me do it, Enzo. My hands are smaller." 

"You won't be able to see what you're doing," he said dismissively. He picked up the screwdriver and tried again. He cursed again, sat half-way up, and smacked his head on the underside of the machine. "Ow! Stupid viral hardware." 

AndrAIa frowned. "Let me do it before you hurt yourself any more." She slid down next to him. "Give me the screwdriver." 

Matrix grudgingly complied. "I don't see what you think you're going to be able to do." 

"Be my eyes. Just guide me where I need to go." 

Matrix took her hand in his own and positioned the tool. "There," he said gruffly. 

AndrAIa worked for a few nanos, and the screw fell from the plate with a metallic ping as it struck the floor. "One down, three to go." She said, haughty smile lingering on her lips. 

---- 

Perl fanned smoke away from her face and coughed. "Cut the power!" She yelled. The bluish glow in the portal generator flickered and died. Perl dragged herself out from under the machine, frowning. "It's slag, worthless," she said. "Must've completely fried it trying to stabilize the core." She saw the two sprites' faces fall in disappointment. "I'm real sorry we can't use it to get you two to the supercomputer. We could have used their help ourselves." Perl wiped almost imperceptible soot from her dark skin. "Still, we'll try everything we can to help you get home. I know how hard this must be for ya." 

Matrix frowned. "How could you possibly know? You're not stranded on the 'Net!" 

"You're right." Perl said with an unnervingly calm voice. She glared at the large green sprite. "I'm completely cut off from it. The only way in and out of this place is through the games, and you'll pardon me if I don't care to try that. I'm just as trapped as you are, if not more so. After all, the next game could always take you home. My system isn't just going to pop up here one day." 

Matrix stared at her angrily, his artificial eye glowing. "It's not the same and you know it," he spat. He grabed AndrAIa by the arm and began to lead her out of the room. "Come on, AndrAIa." The game sprite gave Perl a sympathetic look and followed Matrix out of the P.O. 

Perl shook her head, and kicked the worthless generator in disgust. Matrix's temper was going to get the best of him one of these days. She walked back to her workstation and opened up a vidwindow. Dennis appeared, glancing up from something on his desk. "How are things going?" 

"The core is fixed," Perl said. 

"I sense a 'but' coming." 

"But the portal generator is trashed." 

"That's a shame. How did our guests take it?" 

"Not so good. Matrix blew up in my face and AndrAIa, well, I couldn't tell you _what_ that girl was thinking. I just don't like this, Dennis." 

"I know. But it's not our place to interfere." 

"When _do_ we do something, love? Do we just sit on our bitmaps and let them self-destruct? Like we did with Johanna?" She snapped angrily. 

"Don't bring Johanna into this," Dennis whispered. "I've suffered enough for that, don't you think?" 

"If you're willing to sit back and watch history repeat itself, then no, I don't think you have." She closed the vidwindow and and left the Principal office, heading for her small apartment in Backup sector. 

---- 

The sky was growing dark as they left the Principal office. AndrAIa pulled herself away from Matrix, rubbing her arm and scowling at him. "That hurt." 

"Sorry..." He muttered apologetically. 

"No you're not." She stopped, hands on hips. "You've been moping around and acting just plain nasty to everyone since we got here. Dennis and Perl are trying to help us." 

"Well I wish they wouldn't! We don't need their help. We don't need anyone's help. We're doing fine on our own." 

AndrAIa frowned. "_Sure_ we are. Face it Enzo. We're stranded here, we're at each other's throats constantly..." She looked away. "I can't do this anymore..." 

"What? AndrAIa..." He walked over and put a hand on her shoulder. "What are you saying?" He sounded almost afraid. Her face was twisted in a mask of anguish, large liquid eyes dull and empty looking, as if more than just her vision had gone from them. He barely recognized her. He looked away quickly, almost involuntarily. "This is all my fault," he said, forcing his lips to move. "If only I'd..." 

"Enzo Matrix, do _not_ start that again." A flicker of anger flashed across her face. "No matter _what_ happens, you find some way to blame yourself for it. I didn't mean what I said earlier. Do you really think that if we'd won that game, everything would be perfect now? Even if you'd beaten the user, who's to say we wouldn't have lost the next game, or been deleted altogether? You have to stop living in the past." She paused, regaining her calm. "I watched you _die,_ Enzo. Did you ever once stop to think about that? I stayed with you while you grew bitter and cold. I've tried my hardest to be there for you, no matter what. Even when I was dying inside, I was there for you. Because you needed me to be strong." A single tear slid down her cheek. "But I can't do it anymore, Enzo. Not this time." 

"I'm sorry AndrAIa." He hung his head. He couldn't look at her. There was too much pain on her face, too much space in her eyes. "I'll try. I promise." 

She reached up and touched the side of his face, fingers tracing his familiar features. "I know you will, Lover." Her words sounded hollow, and Matrix hoped it was just a trick of the empty streets. 

---- 

Perl could feel tears in her eyes. It was stupid, she told herself as she guided the zip board towards her apartment complex, to get upset over such a small argument. But the argument itself wasn't what was causing her the pain, she knew. It was a symptom of a larger hurt, and ugly wound that spread throughout Turing. She landed the zip board outside the building and went inside. Her apartment was on the sixth floor, more because she liked the view than out of necessity. The complex itself was almost empty, bearing silent witness to the devastation the system had witnessed. They'd done their best to cover over the scars and rebuild the system, but there was still a hollow place that hung in all of them. 

Somewhere, a door slammed shut and she jumped, echoes of a gunshot ringing in her mind. She laughed uneasily to herself and suddenly found herself crying. "Cursors!" She yelled, wiping at her tears angrily. "Of all the basic..." She collapsed on her shabby couch. 

The room was certainly nothing much to look at. There were a few items of furniture, the couch, a kitchen table scattered with tools and components. The bedroom was equally sparse. It screamed of someone who lived a transient life, ready to run at a moment's notice. But she couldn't run anymore. Like it or not, Turing had become her home. She put her head in her hands. Noticing the Guardian Icon on her belt, she yanked it free and with an inarticulate cry, hurled it across the room. It bounced off the wall in the little used kitchen and clattered to the floor. 

---- 

Dennis watched Perl depart the P.O. through the window in his office. He was more than a little hurt by what she'd said to him, but he dealt with it the same way he'd dealt with everything in the past. He threw himself into his work and tried to forget about it. He knew hiding behind his duties wasn't the best way to cope with the situation but he wasn't in the mood to fight with Perl. 

Sometime later, there was a knock on his door. "Enter." 

The sprite with mint green skin entered the office. "We've concluded our search, sir." 

"Find anything, Circuit?" 

"No, nothing. The building is clean." 

"Thank the User for small miracles," Dennis sighed. 

"Sir..." Circuit began. 

"We're friends, Circuit. Dispense with the formalities." 

"It's late, Dennis. You should go home. You've been working extraordinarily hard the last few cycles." 

"What are you...my mother?" Dennis mumbled. "Suggestion noted, but frankly, I'd prefer just to just stay here and finish what I'm doing. Systems don't run themselves." He wasn't about to admit, even to himself, that he didn't want to go home to an empty house. 

---- 

All the lights were off in the apartment. Matrix lay stretched out on the couch, hands behind his head. Gun lay on the end table, within easy reach. AndrAIa had gone to bed milliseconds earlier, claiming fatigue. Frisket lay in front of the couch, whimpering in his sleep. Matrix sat up. The couch was too small, and he was getting a crick in his neck. He reached down and patted Frisket on the head. "Chasing nulls again, boy?" He got up and went into the bedroom. AndrAIa was laying on her side, facing away from him. He didn't think she was asleep. She didn't move as he climbed in next to her. He lay there a moment, just looking at her. Funny, he'd never realized just how much he took her presence for granted. He half sat up and put a hand on her shoulder, his thumb trailing across the scale-like pattern on the back of her arm. "You awake?" 

"Yeah," she sighed softly. She didn't turn around. 

"Do you...want to talk?" 

"Not really, Matrix." 

He frowned. She only called him Matrix when she was upset with him. "Are you mad at me?" 

"No. I'm tired Enzo. Let me be." 

"All right," he sighed and lay back down and stared hard at the ceiling. The silence was killing him. "We need to talk." He said finally. He heard her sigh again, but this time she turned to face him. Her face glowed palely in the dim light. "We need...a plan." He said. 

"A plan?" She asked, confused. She propped herself up on one elbow. "What sort of plan?" 

"We decided we were going to take charge. Find Bob and get back to Mainframe." 

"Enzo...we can't. I'll go ahead and admit it. I'm too afraid to go into the games." 

"I don't want you going either." He brushed a stray strand of hair out of her face. "Which leaves us back at the start. We can't leave Turing unless your sight returns." 

"I don't think it's going to Enzo," she said sadly. "And I think I can learn to live with it. But what about you? I know how badly you want to go home." 

"What about you? Don't you want to see Mainframe again?" He saw her flinch and realized what he'd said. "Sorry." 

"You didn't do it on purpose, Sparky. And of course I'd like to get back to Mainframe. I want to see Dot and Phong and Mouse again as much as you do. But Mainframe isn't my home. You are." 

"A person can't be your home," he said, annoyed. 

"Why not? You're where I feel safe. That makes you home." She reached out and ruffled his hair. "I wouldn't have it any other way." 

He took her hand in his. "You deserve better than this!" 

"You can't make everything perfect, Enzo. You can't give me my sight back. Only a miracle can do that. We need to build ourselves a new life." 

"I can't! We've searched for so long, AndrAIa! Mainframe might be a game away. We _can't_ give up. You told me the same thing, not long ago. You told me not to lose hope." 

"The circumstances were different then. And I never said we should give up! But we need to face the facts. We can't search for Mainframe through the games anymore, unless you're willing to leave me behind. That _is_ an option, you know. You can keep playing and I'll..." 

"I am _not_ abandoning you here!" He shouted. 

"Hush! Not abandon. You can find Mainframe and then come back for me." 

"No. Absolutely out of the question. How could you even suggest that? I'm lost without you, AndrAIa." 

"Okay. So you're not willing to go look for Mainframe on your own. Then we only have one other option. We stay here, assist Dennis and Perl anyway we can, and hope that either someone from outside the system with portal generating capabilities arrives, or that we repair the ports to the 'Net." 

Matrix shook his head. "No. I'm not going to accept that. There _has_ to be another way!" 

"There isn't, Matrix. We've been through a lot together. This is just one more obstacle we'll have to overcome. We _can_ do it, Lover." She squeezed his hand. "But I can't do this alone." 

"Did I ever tell you how much I _hate_ it when you're right?" 

"Love you too, you stubborn null-head," she quipped, and leaned over to kiss him. 

"_Null-head?!_" 

"Oh, be quiet," she laughed, and snuggled closer. "You going to keep arguing with me or..." 

"I'm shutting up!" He grinned. 

---- 

AndrAIa lay awake, staring at the darkened ceiling. Matrix was sleeping soundly, his arms wrapped around her protectively. 

It was amazing the way they always managed to skate around their arguments, creating innumerable fragile truces but never solving anything. They were, essentially, still at square one. They'd made up what seemed dozens of times, but the core problem remained. They couldn't continue the search for Mainframe, and she was what was holding them back. How often in the last few cycles had she thought of leaving? She was as good as deleted on her own in the Games, but oddly enough, that didn't frighten her nearly as much as the prospect of Matrix leaving her. 

She'd never been on her own before. Well, that wasn't strictly true, she knew she'd been on her own in the games, but she didn't really remember any of that. Her first real clear memory was of waking up in the sub with Enzo. And he'd never left her side since. 

She simply couldn't live without him. She laughed aloud at herself. Here she was, a grown sprite, a warrior, someone who had faced down countless users, had even, back before the game that had changed their lives forever, threatened Megabyte with her crossbow! And yet, she couldn't stand the thought of being alone. 

It was perfectly ridiculous but absolutely true. She had no past outside of Enzo, and without him, she had no future. And yet, fully aware of this, she was still unable to open up to him. Usually it was the other way around. She was usually the one who had to coax Matrix into opening up and telling her what was on his mind. Instead, he'd been trying to do the same for her all second. Truth was, all she wanted was for the hurt and the fear to go away. He couldn't do that for her. Again the thought of leaving crossed her mind. Slip out one night, wait for a game, and simply vanish. 

She couldn't believe these thoughts were even occurring to her. She was actually considering what all but constituted as suicide! Yet, she couldn't force the thoughts away. The best she could do was bury them and nestle deeper into Enzo's protective embrace, trusting him to shut out the darkness, if only for a little while. 

---- 

Perl lay awake in the darkness for a long time. The ghosts of her past were dogging her relentlessly and she couldn't sleep. Getting up, she padded quietly over to her dresser. She stared down at the two items on the top of her dresser. One was Lotus, her keytool. She picked up the battered box and held it in the palm of her hand. Lotus beeped weakly and the display flickered briefly before going black again. She set it down again with a sigh. The other was a small oval locket of gold. She snapped it open and looked at the pictures inside. One was of a woman who looked almost identical to herself, with the same skin, hair, and eye color. Her mother. 

She'd been deleted by a virus when Perl had been a very small sprite. It was part of the reason Perl had wanted so badly to become a Guardian. To get revenge. It didn't mater that the particular virus responsible for her mother's demise was long erased. She wanted pay back for all the years she'd lost with her. 

The other picture was of her father. His steel gray eyes looked out sternly at her. This particular photo had been taken while he was still working at the principal office of her home system. After her mother had deleted, he'd taken Perl and moved to a less populated sector of the system, doing his best to raise her on his own. 

She snapped the locket closed and held it tightly in her hand. She'd lost them both now. She'd disappointed her father and betrayed her mother's memory. She couldn't go home, no matter how much she wished otherwise. Turing was her home now, and she knew that if she didn't act, she was going to destroy her only chance at finding any happiness. She set the locket down next to Lotus and left the room. She left the apartment building, decompressing her zip board. If she knew Dennis at all, he'd still be in the P.O. tying up lose ends. She hopped onto the zip board and headed for the distant tower. 

End Part Five 

Continue...

Back


	6. 6

Time scale:  
nanosecond=second  
microsecond=minute  
millisecond=hour  
cycle=day  
second=week  
minute=month  
hour=year  


The P.O. was deserted when she walked in. The lights were dim and it was so still she could hear a low hum emanating form the core. The light was still on in Dennis' office, which didn't surprise her at all. She paused, then went inside. 

Dennis was still working at his desk when she walked in. She walked over and placed a hand on the edge of the desk. "I owe you an apology," she said. "I had no right to say that to you." 

"You were upset." He glanced up at her. "I'm not mad at you." 

"Yes you are," she sighed, "and you should be. Johanna was my friend, but she was _your_ sister. I was incredibly insensitive." 

"You were right, though. I've been trying to hide from what's going on. So I guess it's time to put hurt feelings aside and decide what we're going to do." 

"We need to talk to them. Let them know we're concerned. They might not have even realized how bad things are." 

Dennis nodded. "I want you to find out if there is anything we could possibly do to help AndrAIa. I think not being able to see is hurting her far more than she's willing to let anyone know." 

"I'll start on it first thing in the morning," she replied. 

"Thank you." Dennis reached out and took her hand. "Johanna would be proud to see you so concerned for these two. There was a time, not so long ago, when you didn't care about anything, or anyone." 

"You helped change that. You gave me something worth caring about." She smiled softly. "Let's go home." 

---- 

It was mid-cycle when Dennis got a reply back from one of the doctors Perl had contacted for him. AndrAIa was keeping Matrix and Perl company in the main control room as they looked over system maintenance, so Dennis called her aside into his office. 

"Is something the matter?" AndrAIa asked, curious as to why the Command.com had wanted to meet with her in private. 

"No, not at all. In fact, I might have some good news for you," Dennis replied. "There's someone who wants to meet with you. He heard about your condition and thinks he might be able to help. Would you be interested?" AndrAIa nodded, not sure what to say. She'd all but consigned herself to the blindness, and here was one last ray of hope slipping in between the storm clouds. "I thought you would be. I'll set up an appointment for you. I don't think I have to tell you that there is guarantee that he'll be able to do anything, but I thought you at least deserved to know." 

"Thank you, Dennis," she said earnestly, and rose to leave. 

"No problem. It was worth it just to see a smile on your face." 

---- 

"Did he say what this doctor thought he could do for you?" 

Matrix, AndrAIa, and Frisket were sitting in the same cafe they'd come to their first full cycle in Turing. "No. I don't think he knew himself. But if there is even the smallest chance he can do something, we have to take it. This could be what we've been waiting for." 

Matrix took her hands in his own. She seemed more alive than she had in cycles. The sparkling personality he'd grown to love so much was reasserting itself at long last. 

"I'm trying not to get my hopes up..." she continued, "There's a distinct possibility that there just isn't anything to be done. But it's hard not to get excited." 

"When do you go?" 

"Dennis was going to make the apointment. He'll let me know tomorrow. I hope this goes well." 

"So do I," Matrix said, touching the side of her face gently. 

**"Warning: Incoming Game."**

Matrix looked out the window at the descending game cube. "I've got to go," he said apologetically. 

"I know. I'll wait for you here." He stood and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. "Be careful," she said. 

"I will." 

---- 

"Matrix, AndrAIa, there you are. I've been waiting for you. Dr. Acros wants to meet with you immediately, if possible. I can have Perl show you where his office is." 

"Now is fine," AndrAIa said. "Thank you, Dennis." 

Dennis retrieved Perl from the other room. "You two ready to go?" She asked when she saw the two sprites. 

AndrAIa nodded. "I'm a bit nervous. The last diagnostic program I went to said there was nothing he could do. I'm hoping it will be different this time around." 

Perl smiled. "We all are, hun. Don't worry. I've got a good feeling about this." 

---- 

"Hmmm...interesting." The one binome examined AndrAIa's eyes one last time before stepping back. 

"Well?" Matrix asked from the cornor of the room where he'd been asked to wait. 

"It's a borderline case..." the doctor mused, "...but we just might be able to help. You have to understand that there is no guarantee that the procedure I'm considering will fully restore her sight." 

"What sort of procedure?" AndrAIa asked, a hint of apprehension in her voice. 

"It's a fairly new operation." Dr. Acros began to outline what the surgery entailed. "The ones we have performed so far have had good results. Normally, it's used to treat a degenerative eye condition, but its symptoms, and the ones caused by your accident are strikingly similar." 

"So what you're really saying is that you don't know if this will work at all?" Matrix asked. 

"Well, young man, any operation has it's risks. This might not return her full sight. It might not do anything at all. And there is a chance, a slight possibility, that she could lose what little vision she has left." 

"I think this is something we're going to have to talk over," AndrAIa said. 

"Of course. This isn't something you should take lightly. Take a few cycles to think it over." 

"We'll let you know what we decide," she said, and stood to go. Matrix came over and took her hand. "And thank you for everything. You've no idea how much this means to me." 

"You're very welcome," the doctor replied. "And I hope to see you again." 

Matrix and AndrAIa left the office, deep in conversation. "I know you want to go through with this," Matrix said. "I can see it on your face." 

"This might be the only chance I have of seeing again, Enzo. This might be our chance to continue searching for Mainframe. Of _course_ I want to do this. Don't you?" 

"What sort of question is that? Of course I want you to see again. I'm just concerned." 

"You worry too much. The gains outweigh any of the possible risks." 

"What if it doesn't work? What if you lose the rest of your sight?" 

"Then I'm really no worse off than I am now. At least then I won't know what I'm missing," she replied dryly. "It's torture to be able to see just well enough to know what it is I'm not seeing." 

Matrix sighed. "You're right. Still, let's give it a few cycles, just in case you change your mind." 

AndrAIa laughed at the uneasiness she heard in Matrix's voice. "It's a simple operation, Enzo. You heard what Dr. Acros said. It won't take more than a few milliseconds. the work they did on your eye took longer than that." 

"Yeah, but _I_ was the one having the operation." He muttered. "What if something goes wrong?" 

"Nothing is going to go wrong! Stop worrying." 

"Easy for you to say." 

"No, it's not. I've never even been in a hospital before, well, aside from visiting you. I'm a little apprehensive myself. But that's not important. We just have to think positively." 

"Yeah, sure." Matrix didn't sound entirely convinced. 

AndrAIa sighed. "I know you're just worried about my well-being, and it's touching, but you really need to lighten up." 

"I'll lighten up when this is all over. But I respect your judgment." 

"Thank you." She stood on tiptoes and kissed him. 

"You're welcome. Let's head back to the P.O. and tell Dennis and Perl." 

"Good idea, lover." 

---- 

They'd gone back to Dr. Acros a few cycles later and made the appointment for her operation. It was scheduled for a second from the present cycle, and Matrix could sense AndrAIa's growing apprehension. He was a bit nervous himself. He needed to do something to get her mind off of it, and he thought he knew what.  
He stood in the jewelry store nervously eyeing the array of rings in the case in front of him. The old binome who owned the store chuckled softly to himself. He'd seen this scene played out hundreds of times in his life, and it never failed to amuse him. He cleared his throat slightly and said, "May I help you?" 

Matrix glanced up, a stricken look on his face. "I'm, uh, looking for a ring," he said, glancing back at the rows of glittering diamond engagement rings, "but none of these seem right." 

"Well," said the binome, "these are our standard engagement rings. But I have a feeling you're not shopping for an ordinary girl." Hours of work at the jewelry store had given him special intuition into these matters. He took great pride in his ability to provide his customers with what they were looking for. 

"You're right," Matrix said, slightly surprised at the binome's comment. 

A knowing smile crept across the binome's face. "I think I have just the thing. Wait here." He shuffled off into the back room. He returned a micro later with a black velvet box. "Tell me," he said, opening the box, "is _this_ what you're looking for?" 

It was. "That's perfect," Matrix replied, staring dumb struck at the old binome. "How did you know?" 

"Intuition." He tapped the side of his head. 

Matrix gazed back at the ring. The band was a plain circlet of gold, the polished metal glowing brightly. Set in the center of the band was a single, medium sized pearl. It was perfectly round and had a beautiful silvery sheen to it. Matrix smiled inwardly. He knew in his heart that AndrAIa would prefer its luminous warmth to the cold hard glitter of a diamond. The old binome rang up his purchase and Matrix paid him. The money Dennis had insisted on giving him for his work a the P.O., plus the units he still had saved from similar work in other systems was just enough to cover the expense. Luckily, the cost of AndrAIa's surgery was being waived by the hospital due to it's experimental nature.  
He held the velvet box in the palm of his and, just looking at it. He'd originally planed to wait until they'd found Mainframe to propose, but the last few seconds had helped him realize just how vital she was to his life. He was convinced now that this was the right time.  
The walk back to the apartment was the longest he'd ever made. He'd gone over what he was going to say a dozen times, but it never seemed right. The box that held the ring was clutched tightly in his hand. He stopped at the door, steeling himself, then went inside. 

AndrAIa had been sitting at the table, facing the window, but turned around when she head him come in. "What have you been up to?" She asked. The cycle's waning light was shining through the window behind her, bathing her in a warm glow. She smiled at him, head propped up on one hand as she leaned against the back of the chair. "Well?" 

"AndrAIa..." 

"Enzo," she asked worriedly, "is something wrong?" She hadn't heard him that emotional sounding in ages. 

"No." He said firmly, and drew her up to stand in front of him. "At least not yet," he added hastily. He took her hand in his own. "AndrAIa, will you marry me?" 

She said nothing for a nano, too stunned to reply. Then a huge smile broke out across her face. "Of course I will." She stood on tiptoes and kissed him. "I was starting to wonder if you were ever going to ask me." 

"I was waiting for the right time," he said. He took out the ring and slid it onto her finger. "I know you can't really appreciate this," he said apologetically, "and I'm sorry I won't be able to give you the sort of wedding you deserve." 

"That's not what matters, Enzo. They're just things." 

He wrapped his arms around her. "I know," he said, kissing her forehead. "Still..." 

"I have you, Sparky. That's all I need." 

It struck him that he was amazingly lucky to have her. She'd stuck by his side through it all, through every bad moment, never wavering. He didn't ever want to let her go again. 

End part Six 

Continue...

Back


	7. 7

Time scale:  
nanosecond=second  
microsecond=minute  
millisecond=hour  
cycle=day  
second=week  
minute=month  
hour=year

Part Seven 

Matrix found himself unable to suppress a smile as he watched AndrAIa and Perl whispering together on the opposite side of the room.Dennis had given him a good-natured slap on the shoulder. "Congratulations. Have you decided on a date yet?" 

"Not yet. Sometime after the operation, I guess. We don't really know how long her recovery will take." 

Dennis nodded, still watching Perl and AndrAIa. "Well, she certainly seems excited." He flashed the renegade Guardian a lopsided smile. So does Perl, for that mater. Dennis sighed wistfully. It's certainly nice to see them both smiling. 

Matrix commented, I didn't think Perl was the type to get excited over this sort of thing. 

Don't let her fool you. She's a lot more caring than she lets on. But don't tell her I said that, he added. 

---- 

They entered the hospital hand in hand, both feeling slightly uneasy. They met Dr. Acros and he went over the procedure one last time. 

Are you sure you want to go through with this? Matrix asked, squeezing AndrAIa's hand. 

she said. Everything will be okay, don't worry. 

Dr. Acros cleared his throat. It's time we go, he said. 

See you soon! AndrAIa kissed Matrix on the cheek and left with the doctor. 

Matrix watched them walk through the door before sinking down on one of the benches. I hope so, AndrAIa. I hope so, he whispered. 

---- 

He was pacing the length of the floor for about the thousandth time that millisecond when Dr. Acros came back out into the waiting area. Everything went well, he said immediately upon seeing Matrix's anxious face. She's still under sedation, but you're welcome to go see her. 

Thank you. 

Dr. Acros nodded and led him toward the recovery room. The bandages will have to remain on for about a second," the doctor explained as he ushered Matrix into the room. "And it's difficult to say how long it will be before we know how much of her sight will return." Matrix walked over to the bed and took AndrAIa's hand in his own. Her face seemed pale and bandages covered both eyes. "She should regain consciousness shortly, though the medication we're giving her may make her groggy. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have other patients to check on. I'll stop back in when I'm done." Matrix nodded and thanked the doctor again. 

A short time later, AndrAIa stirred. "Enzo?" 

"I'm right here." He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "How are you feeling?" 

"Mmmm...sort of...muddled," she said, touching her hand to her head. 

"It's the medication they're giving you for the pain," he said. "Dr. Acros said everything went well." 

"That's good to hear." She smiled gently. "See, I told you not to worry." 

"Since when have I ever listened?" 

"True...," she laughed. 

Just then Dr. Acros came into the room. "You're awake, good. How'er you feeling?" 

"Okay, I guess," AndrAIa said, turning her head in the direction of his voice. 

"Good. Well, you can go home, if you feel up to it. There's no reason for you to stay if you don't want too." 

"Are you sure that's okay? I mean, she just had an operation-" 

The doctor waved Matrix quiet. "I assure you, Mr. Matrix, that I wouldn't let her go unless it were completely safe. I _am_ a doctor, after all." 

"You're right," Matrix said gruffly. "Well, AndrAIa, do you feel up to it?" 

"I think so," she replied. 

"I'll see to your release then, and set up an appointment to remove the bandages. The only stipulation on your release is that you rest. Even a relatively simple procedure like this can take it's toll on the body." 

"I'll make sure she behaves," Matrix said. The doctor nodded and left the room. "Looks like you're going to have some spare time on your hands," Matrix commented. 

"Well, I _do_ have a wedding to plan," she grinned. 

---- 

"Well, today's the big day." AndrAIa said brightly, hiding the anxiousness she felt. 

"Yeah. You ready to go?" She nodded. "Nervous?" 

You bet your bitmap I am. But I'm excited too." She reached out and he grasped her hand. "Let's do this." 

---- 

Dr. Acros shown a light in AndrAIa's eyes, watching for a reaction. "Let me know if you see anything at all." 

"I can see the light," AndrAIa said, but that's about all." 

"Not to worry," he replied. "That's actually a good sign. Your eyes are still healing. But the fact that you can see something, even something this seemingly unimportant tells me that you haven't lost all ocular function." 

"Do you have any idea how much sight she'll get back?" 

"It's hard to say this early on," Dr. Acros said, "we'll have to see how rapidly her eyes heal. Any major improvement should occur within the next second or so. But I'd venture to guess that she has a good chance of full recovery." 

"That's the best news I've heard in seconds," AndrAIa said, breathing a sigh of relief. 

---- 

Dennis sighed and side-stepped around yet another mangled body. "What sort of person actually _enjoys_ this sort of thing?" 

"Wish I knew the answer to that myself," Matrix said. "Duck!" 

Dennis dropped to the ground and Matrix blasted the vampire that had appeared behind the Command.Com. 

"Thanks for the save," Dennis said, brushing himself off. 

"No problem," Matrix replied. "On you left!" 

Dennis spun and shot the approaching demon with the cross bow he'd gained when he rebooted. "That's two I owe you." 

"Look," Matrix said, "it's obvious you don't play the games often...why did you want to come along on this one?" 

Dennis laughed. "You spent a lot of time helping me, I thought maybe I'd try and return the favor. Didn't really work out that way. I'm a liability in here." 

"We're lucky. This user is basic. He's still trapped in the labyrinth in the second level. We'll reach the inner circle in no time." 

"Yeah, easy as falling off an analog." Dennis said sarcastically, firing off an arrow at a troll that attacked from a side hall. "Johanna would have loved this game..." He murmured. 

"Who's Johanna?" Matrix asked. In all the time he and AndrAIa had been in Turing, Dennis hadn't mentioned the name, and the pain he saw on Dennis' face made him wish he hadn't asked. "You don't have to-" 

"No, it's okay. Perl is always telling me I should stop hiding from what happened." He paused as he noticed Matrix's puzzled look. "It' a long story," he said, "but I guess we've got the time." 

"Johanna was my sister- my twin sister, actually. We were complete opposites. I guess I've always been the practical one, planing, thinking through things logically. Johanna- she could plan, don't get me wrong, some of her strategies were brilliant- but she was an action junkie, I guess you'd say. Always had to be on the front lines. She needed to be a part of what was going on. A free spirit. I envied her, I think.  
When the old Command.Com was deleted in a viral fire-fight, we took over the operation of the system. Neither of us had much experience at this sort of thing, but together we managed to keep Turing afloat. Then Perl came along. User, I think I loved her the nano I set eyes on her. And Johanna, well, they were so similar. They quickly became the best of friends. It was ideal in a way, if you ignored the fact that we were at war, always in danger of being over-run. The three of us against the 'Net. Or so it seemed." Dennis paused to regain his composure. His voice had become emotional as he talked of those memories. "I guess we thought we were invincible. It never occurred to us that something would happen..." 

"But it did." 

"Yes. Johanna was nearly crippled in an explosion. Perl almost died. And I, I'm afraid I fell apart. I'd almost lost everything in one fell swoop. I realized for the first time how dangerous things were. I'm also ashamed to admit that I ran from what was happening. Threw myself into my work to avoid the pain Johanna was feeling.  
She could still walk with crutches, but that was it. She could never be out on the battlefield like she wanted to. I was too busy hiding to notice her drift away." 

Matrix looked at him oddly for a moment before her realized what Dennis was saying. 

"She deleted herself," Dennis said finally. "We didn't even...all we heard a gunshot. It tore Perl apart. I think she blamed herself, though I don't know why. She was barely processing herself at that point. They had been such good friends. And I went numb. We were completely shell-shocked and all we had left were each other. I think that's why she's stayed as long as she has..." 

"But Perl loves you, doesn't she?" 

"Sure, "Dennis shrugged. "But that means little to her in the grand scheme of things. She needs a savior, and I do the best I can." 

---- 

Waiting for the game to end? Perl asked, joining AndrAIa on the steps of the principal office. 

AndrAIa nodded. I hate not being in there with him, not knowing what's going on in there. 

Hey, don't worry. You'll be back playing the games in no time. How is your vision, by the way? 

AndrAIa replied with a slight smile. The doctor said I'll probably make a total recovery. It'll just take a few seconds. Dennis told me you were the one who contacted Dr. Acros in the first place. I wanted to thank you. 

No thanks necessary. Helping out folks who need it is in my code, she said with a lopsided smile. That's why I stayed in Turing in the first place. 

Still, you and Dennis have gone out of your way to help Matrix and I. Why? Most of the systems we've been in don't want anything to do with us. 

Their loss. She watched as AndrAIa shifted her gaze back to the towering game cube. Don't worry about them. I'm sure they'll be fine. Assuming Matrix watches Dennis' back, that is. Perl laughed. 

He doesn't play the games often? 

Hardly ever. He _is_ the Command.Com, which is a decent reason, I suppose. It's usually just me, she frowned. 

AndrAIa tore her eyes away from the game cube and looked out over the city. Her eyesight was still rather blurry, but it was better than it had been before. She could see the individual buildings now, even if the details were indistinct. Don't you enjoy playing the games? 

I hate them, Perl said matter-of-factly. But I can't go against my code. She tapped her icon absently. I still feel the pull, the need to be there, much as I dislike it. 

Why do you hate them? 

Bad memories, hun. Things that were my fault, things I don't want to talk about. It was different- back when Johanna and I played the games. 

Perl laughed bitterly. She's another of those not talked about' things. But I brought it up. so I guess I owe it to you to explain. I'm always telling Dennis talking about it will make it hurt less, can't very well go against my own advice.  
Johanna was Dennis' twin sister. Wouldn't know it if they didn't look so much alike, though. Different as could be, those two. Johanna was a fiery one. Always wanted to be where the action was. Needless to say we got along right from the start. It was nice, I hadn't had a real friend in a long time. We made a great team. Got it into our heads that we could lick the virals plaguing the system all by ourselves. 

User, I can't believe we were that basic. Obviously we couldn't. Our cockiness got me damn near defeated and Jo partially paralyzed. She paused, seeing the sad look on AndrAIa's face. Don't you go getting upset over what I'm telling you. What's happened can't be changed and you feeling bad about it doesn't do anyone any good.  
Looking back, I realize that Johanna, the part of her that mattered, the part of her that was fierce and friendly all at the same time died in that accident. She lost her will to live, really. And I was too bad off to think about anyone but myself. But knowing that, I still can't believe she deleted herself. 

---- 

This is it, Matrix said, standing before the door to the final level. 

Well, Let's go then, Dennis replied. 

With one powerful kick, Matrix knocked the iron doors off their hinges. They clashed to the floor with a tremendous thud. 

After you, Dennis said, gazing into the dark room. Matrix grabbed a torch off the wall and the two moved cautiously inside. 

This is pleasant, Matrix commented sarcastically. 

Dennis glanced around the room, uneven ground crunching loudly with each step he took. What are we walking on? Then the smell hit him. Uhh. Scratch that, I don't think I want to know. 

Hold on, I think I found something. Matrix walked over to a large metal container filled with dark liquid. He touched the torch to it's surface and flames shot upward, illuminating the room.   
The chamber was filled with bones. They covered the floor and rose in precarious piles along the walls. In the center was a large black pool ringed with stones. Dennis stepped up to the edge and peered into the dark water. 

What sort of nasty creature lives in there, do you think? 

Looks like we're going to find out! Matrix gripped the Command.Com's shoulder and pulled him back. The brackish water was rolling and boiling, and with a sound halfway between a hiss and a scream, a huge hydra broke through the surface of the water, three heads swaying this way and that. Matrix and Dennis backed up against the wall knocking over one of the teetering bone piles, out of reach of the snapping jaws filled with needle-like teeth. 

Now what? Dennis asked, catching his breath after the sudden shock. It can't leave the water to get us, and we can't end the game until we kill it. If we had a sword- 

No! If you cut its head off, three more grow back. Trust me on this one. 

Great. And I'm out of arrows- he tossed the crossbow down in disgust. We're at a standstill. 

Not necessarily. Matrix reached down and pulled Gun from it's holster. Gun, command line: full delete. He aimed for the center most head and fired, praying this would work. Both sprites cringed as the monster let out a horrific shriek before vanishing. 

Game Over. 

---- 

AndrAIa sat silent, wondering what she should say. Perl was looking away at the game cube again. 

Game Over. 

It's leaving, she said. A moment later, two figures appeared on zip boards, heading toward the principal office. 

Did you enjoy yourself? Perl asked as Dennis landed and compressed his zip board. 

I'd be toast if not for Matrix, he commented wryly. Now I remember why I usually avoid those things. 

Perl gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. That'll teach you to leave the game playing to the professionals, she scolded. Thanks for returning him in one piece, Matrix. 

He wasn't all that bad, the young man replied. 

Right. I'd hate to see what would have happened had the user not been so basic. Perl's right, I should leave the games to you Guardians. 

This comment earned twin scowls from both Perl and Matrix. Okay, okay! To you renegades and academy dropouts! He said sheepishly. Anyone up for an energy shake? 

Nah. I'm feeling kinda low-res, Matrix replied. Think I'll go catch some downtime. 

I think I'll just go with Matrix, if that's okay. 

No problem. Well, I'll see you two later then. You coming, Perl? 

Sure thing, hun. Later you two! The pair zipped away from the principal office off into the heart of Turing. 

---- 

Is something the matter, Enzo? You seem awfully tense. 

Matrix leaned back on the couch, hands behind his head, eyes closed. AndrAIa sat comfortably in his lap. Not really. 

Come on, lover, she chided. You can't fool me. I know you too well. 

He sighed. AndrAIa, are you happy? 

AndrAIa regarded him with a quizzical look. What do you mean? 

Are you happy? With the way things are...with us? 

Oh, Sparky. She smiled and kissed him lightly. Of course I'm happy. She cuddled in closer and her wrapped an arm around her shoulders. What brought this on? 

Something Dennis told me when we were in the game... 

About his sister? She guessed. 

Yeah, how did- 

Perl told me what happened to her. AndrAIa sat up and turned to face him, brushing the ever present hair out of his eyes. Enzo, I'd never leave you. I'd never- she stopped, remembering the dark thoughts she'd had late in the night cycle. She frowned sadly. 

He reached out and took her hand in his own. Shhh...I'm sorry. 

No, it's okay, she replied. I want you to know this. I could never be that unhappy, not as long as I had you. You're my reason for being, she said fiercely. 

Matrix brushed a tear from her cheek. Hey, no crying. I thought you were happy. 

I am. She gazed at him, at the face she could finally see again. The one she had almost forgotten. Don't ever leave me, she said softly. 

That's what this is for. He held her hand out, engagement ring glowing with reflected light. It's a promise that I'll never leave you. He took her other hand, bringing her closer and drawing her into a passionate kiss. 

She pulled away as they almost toppled off of the couch. We can't do this here. 

You're right. In one quick motion, Matrix swept her up off the couch and into his arms. 

Put me down! She laughed. 

Not a chance... 

Continue...

Back


	8. 8

Well, this is the last chapter, everyone. Not to worry, though. The next story is already well underway. :) At this point in time, I'd like to thank some people who've been essential in helping me get this done. Yona, who took the time to beta read this entire thing, for which I'm eternally grateful. Threnody and Platinum Raven for the many nights they sat and listened to me whine about this thing on Y! and gave me invaluable advice. Platinum Raven again for actually helping me write part of this chapter (you make Dennis sound so elegant. Thank you!) Threnody again for agreeing to look over the last of this chapter on short notice, and of course, you, my readers. Especially BooBoo, who's continuous feedback and nagging kept me writing. Lots of love to you all. And now, on with the story. 

Oh, I should add one tiny warning, there's about a paragraph in here that might vaguely offend more prudish minded people, but it's by no means even rated R. If ya can't deal with it, just scroll past. 

Time scale:   
nanosecond=second   
microsecond=minute   
millisecond=hour   
cycle=day   
second=week   
minute=month   
hour=year   
  
  


Chapter Eight

"I hate this," Matrix muttered, searching through the various wardrobe upgrades. "Why are we doing this again?" 

"Because you're not wearing that-" Dennis gestured to Matrix's clothes, " to your wedding." Dennis flipped through the upgrades. "Here, try this. Nothing fancy." 

Matrix grumbled, but took the upgrade. "The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can go scout a location for this thing." 

---- 

So, how do you think the boys are faring?" 

"Knowing Matrix, horribly. He hates shopping," AndrAIa said over the top of the dressing room door. "What do you think of this one?" She asked, swinging the door open. 

"Perfect." 

"You think so?" AndrAIa asked, looking back in the mirror. 

"It's lovely. Definitely the best one yet." 

AndrAIa smoothed the satin skirt of the dress and gazed back into the mirror. It wasn't anything fancy, plain white satin with thin straps and a scooped neck and back, but she loved it.   
It all seemed unreal to her still. In a few short cycles, she and Enzo would be getting married...she smiled happily at the thought. 

"Is this the one?" Perl asked, her reflection appearing behind AndrAIa's in the mirror. 

"Yes," she replied softly. 

---- 

They left the store with the purchase carefully wrapped in a garment bag. "Where to next?" Perl asked, surveying the array of stores in Turing's shopping district. 

"I don't know. We've been doing this for milliseconds. Maybe we should find someplace to sit for awhile." 

"Ah-ha!" Perl exclaimed, finding the sign she'd been searching for. "It's still there. Come on...this place has the best sundaes in the system. We can rest our feet and get a little gossip in while the guys are away." 

---- 

"So we want something outside?" Dennis asked as he and Matrix zipped through the system. 

"Yeah. I think AndrAIa would like that." 

"Well, there are a couple small parks scattered through the system..." He snapped his fingers. "I've got it- how about something near the energy sea?" 

"Sounds good...you have something in mind?" 

"Follow me." 

---- 

"He did _what?_" AndrAIa shrieked, giggling. The outburst earned glances from a few of the other customers, but the two sprites ignored them, huddled over the remains of two ice cream sundaes. "I can't believe Dennis would do something like that. He seems so-" 

"Straight laced?" Perl laughed. "Don't let him fool you. That's just his 'Mr. Command.Com' attitude. He's quite different at home..." she finished. "Your turn!" 

"Well," AndrAIa grinned slyly and leaned across the table, whispering to Perl. 

"No!" She laughed. 

"Yes!" AndrAIa replied gleefully. 

"Okay," Perl said, still laughing. "You win." 

---- 

"Well, what do you think?" 

Matrix gazed out at the energy sea and listened to the waves slap against the pilings of the boardwalk.   
The two sprites were standing on the wide observation deck, surrounded by a waist high wooden railing. A wood plank walkway extended far back to the shore. "Perfect." 

---- 

I am _not_ going in there." AndrAIa planted herself firmly on the sidewalk, refusing to let Perl drag her into the shop. 

"Oh, for User's sake...don't tell me you're embarrassed!" 

"No!" AndrAIa protested. "I just don't-" 

"Humor me," Perl said. "It's not like you have to _buy_ anything." 

AndrAIa gave up her half-hearted attempt at a protest. "Okay..." she conceded. 

"It'll be fun," Perl laughed. "Honestly, I've never seen so much fuss over a little lingerie store." 

---- 

"You nervous?" Perl asked around a mouthful of hairpins. 

"My hands are shaking," she laughed. 

"Hold still!" Perl reprimanded and stuck another pin into AndrAIa's hair. "There." She stepped back and surveyed her handiwork. The majority of AndrAIa's hair was now piled up on top of her head. Only her bangs hung down, sweeping across her forehead. 

"Well," Perl said, "I guess that's that. We should get going. Dennis left to get Matrix thirty micros ago. 

---- 

Matrix leaned against the wood railing, fiddling with the collar of his dress shirt. "Shouldn't they be here by now?" He asked. 

"Relax. This is the biggest cycle of your life. No need to rush it. Here they come, turn around!" 

Matrix obediently turned to face the energy sea. A moment later, Perl's quick footsteps sounded down the boardwalk. "Everything's set. You can turn around now." 

Matrix did, and his heart caught in his throat. AndrAIa walked confidently toward him with slow, sure steps. The slight breeze blew her bangs around her forehead and a radiant smile graced her face as she came to stand next to him. 

"You look amazing," he whispered. Dennis cleared hit throat and the two turned to face him. 

"You two have a love that cannot be explained by any words in my format, yet I will try. You share the burdens, the decisions, the hate, and the passion of any love that has had True Love graze her beautiful hands upon it. As I watch you two, I see fear and joy mixing into one in your young eyes. Love, being a treasured, rare thing as it is, is something you must give to the other boundlessly. Share this treasure as you have shared your lives. Find this as a new game, a new adventure, a game that you can never lose. It will take you wherever you want to go. Which one of you is going first? Speak true to your heart, for that will let you win against any opponent or obstacle." 

AndrAIa glanced from Enzo to Dennis. "I'll go." She looked back at her lover. "Enzo," she began, her voice shaking. "You're everything to me. You've been my best friend from the moment we met, and you've never once wavered in that friendship. We've fought at times, but you never one turned your back on me. And there no one I'd rather spend the rest of my life with." She slid the wedding band onto his finger. 

Matrix took her hand in his own and looked deep into her eyes. "You've always been here for me. Through everything that's happened, through all the dark times, you stayed by my side. And I want you to be there for everything that's yet to come, good or bad. I'm nothing without you," he finished, voice tight. He slid the ring onto her finger with ease. 

Dennis looked at the couple, their eyes shining with unshed tears of joy. He smiled broadly at them. "By the power vested in me as the Command.Com of Turing System, I pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride." 

Perl stood silently to one side and wiped tears from her eyes as she watched the young newlyweds embrace in the fading light of dusk. Dennis walked up and wrapped a comforting arm around her waist, kissing her cheek gently. "I never knew you could be so eloquent," she said softly. 

"Neither did I. The spirit moved me, I guess. I see such a bright future ahead of them." 

"So do I," Perl agreed. She reached out and took his hand in her own, leaning over to whisper in his ear. "What do you say we go on home and leave these two to their honeymoon?" He smiled and squeezed her hand gently. "I think that's a great idea." 

---- 

AndrAIa lay on her stomach, hair fanned out over her bare back, sheet at her waist. Matrix lay next to her, tracing idle circles over the scale like pattern that ran down her back with his finger. "Did I wear you out?" 

AndrAIa said nothing, letting the delicious tired feeling settle over her. After a moment she rolled over, pressing the length of her body against his own. Arms thrown over his shoulders, she raked his back playfully with her fingernails. His lips locked on hers in a smoldering kiss and they were caught again in the moment. 

---- 

Perl leaned back and gazed at the slowly melting candles in the holders on the table. Dennis was wandering back and forth from there to the kitchen, cleaning up the assorted dishes left over from their meal. "How lucky can one girl get? A man who cooks *and* does the dishes," she teased. "And here I thought they only existed in fairytales." 

"What can I say?" Dennis laughed, leaning over her shoulder and kissing her on the cheek quickly, gathering up the last few dishes. "You bring out the best in me." 

"You always get this sappy after weddings?" 

"Not always. This one was...special." 

"Because they're our friends." 

"Because," he said, sitting down across from her and taking her hand in his own, "they fought so hard to get where they are now. Lesser sprites would have given up hope. It takes a lot of determination to bear up under the sort of troubles they face. But then again, you know that already." He caressed the back of her hand with his thumb. "You've been doing the same thing your whole life." The details of her past were sketchy to him, but he'd known her- and loved her- long enough to know how troubled that past had been. 

"You make it sound like a great accomplishment," she said, meeting his eyes with a haunted gaze. 

"Isn't it?" He asked softly. 

"It's called survival," she replied. "Living one cycle to the next. There's nothing great about it. Some cycles, it flat out sucks." 

"That's not true. Not when someone manages the kind of happiness AndrAIa and Matrix have found, despite everything. Not when you've managed to make _my_ life worth living." 

She gave him a sardonic smile. "You always _have_ given me more credit than I deserved. If I hadn't come here in the first place, your sister would still be alive." 

"If you hadn't come when you did, we'd all be dead." His voice was firm, but not angry. "You know that. What happened to Johanna, we can't change that. And we can't let her ghost haunt us for the rest of our lives, Perl. I've come to realize that these last few cycles. I wish you would as well." 

She swallowed, looking away. She was determined not to let him see her tears. "You don't know.." she said brokenly. "You don't know the things I've done. Johanna wasn't the first-" 

"I don't care," he said, griping her hand tighter. "Past is past, Perl. Dead and gone. Leave it that way." He got up, never letting go of her hand, and pulled her up to meet him. With his free hand, he reached out and brushed a wisps of amethyst hair away from her charcoal grey forehead. "This is what matters now. You and me." 

"I'm sorry." She leaned into his embrace, pressing her head into his shoulder. 

"There's nothing to be sorry for." He smoothed her hair back and held her tight. "We have each other, and that's all that matters." 

---- 

AndrAIa stood at the window, staring out at the bright blue, unclouded sky of Turing with a pang of sadness. User permitting, she and Matrix would be leaving today. She was caught between two emotions; excitement at the thought of beginning the search for Mainframe again, and reluctance to leave the warmth and friendship they'd found here. 

"You want to stay, don't you?" Matrix wrapped his arms around her waist, following her gaze. 

"Part of me wants to," she admitted. "But it's a small part. You know," she said after a moment, "I think we've been here longer than I was ever in Mainframe." Matrix said nothing, and after a moment of silence, she continued. "But I know Turing could never be home. You'd never be happy here." 

"What about you?" He asked softly. "You're always worried about making _me_ happy. What about _you_?" 

"I'm happy when you're happy," she said brightly, turning around in the circle of his arms. She put her arms around his neck and leaned her head on one broad shoulder. 

"What did I ever do to deserve you?" He asked quietly. 

"Must be your charm and amazing sense of humor," she said sarcastically. 

"Be nice..." he said in a mock-warning tone. 

"Or what?" She shot back playfully. 

"Or I'll do this!" He gave her a quick jab in the side with a finger, causing her to shriek. 

"No fair tickling me!" She cried, darting away from him. She was fast, but not fast enough, and he cornered her on the couch. 

"Since when have I been fair?" He had hold of both her wrists now, holding them above her head with one hand. He leaned in and kissed her. 

"Dennis and Perl are waiting for us, remember?" She said after the kiss was brought to an end by the bothersome need to breath. 

"This early in the morning? I don't think so," he grinned. "We've still got plenty of time." 

---- 

Perl muttered quietly to herself as the light lancing in through the blinds woke her from her sleep. She reached over to where Dennis was still sleeping soundly, grabbed hold of his pillow, and yanked it out from beneath his head and covered her own with it. She heard a mumbled protest from her lover and was soon engaged in a wrestling match over the pilfered pillow. Perl finally wrested it out of Dennis' grasp and whaped him soundly with it before resuming her former position with the pillow clamped over her head. 

"I know you're not a morning person...but don't you think this is a bit extreme?" 

"Hrrrm....no," came her muffled reply. 

"Aw, come on." He lifted up the corner of the pillow and peeked at her. "I'll make you breakfast." 

"Dennis," she muttered, "You _know_ I don't eat breakfast." 

Dennis sighed and dropped the corner of the pillow again. "Well, it never hurts to try." He untangled himself from the mess they'd made of the sheets during their pillow fight and began to get dressed. "They're going to be waiting for us, you know." Perl muttered something into the pillows he couldn't quite make out. He sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed, rubbing her back soothingly. "This is because you don't want to say goodbye, isn't it?" 

Perl lifted up the pillow, turned to glare at him and buried her head again. "Go away." "You know, you don't have to be ashamed. I don't want them to go anymore than you do. It's been nice having them here. But they don't _belong_ here Perl." 

"I _know_ that." She sat up and hit him with the pillow again. "Doesn't mean it doesn't suck. At least a little, anyway." 

"I know," he replied, placing a supportive arm around her shoulders. "But it's the way things are." 

"Yeah." She climbed out of the bed and stretched before wandering off to the shower. When she was done changing, the two hoped onto their zipboards and headed over to the Principal office. Matrix and AndrAIa arrived a short time later. 

"Well, I guess this is it," Dennis said after a moment's awkward silence. 

"Yeah," Matrix mumbled. "Look," he glanced down at his feet, looking vaguely uncomfortable. "I wanted to say thank you. You guys did more for us than you needed to." 

"Nonsense. I'm the Command.Com. Besides, you more than deserved it. You helped us get rid of those viruses once and for all." 

Matrix glanced back up. "Okay. We'll call it even then." 

Dennis nodded. "Let's easier on everyone that way. None of that embarrassing feeling of indebtedness." 

Matrix chuckled slightly, then slipped back into silence. AndrAIa sat down on the steps of the P.O. and stretched her legs out in front of her. 

"It's just a matter of waiting then, I guess." she said. "Are you guys going to join us? I'd hate to say goodbye like this. It doesn't seem right." In truth, she was feeling slightly nervous. She hadn't played a game since she'd recovered her sight, and she wanted to know if she'd lost any of her edge during the long absence. 

"Dennis glanced over at Matrix. "I don't know...do you think you can handle another game with me?" He laughed. 

Matrix smirked. "I'm sure I'll manage." 

"Perl?" Dennis glanced over at his lover, trying to coerce her with a gentle smile. 

"Why not," she shrugged. "Beats staring at the game cube after it's fallen. Besides, this way we'll know you two haven't gotten yourselves deleted." The last comment was obviously meant as a joke, but came out slightly flat. 

As if on cue, the blue sky above them darkened, and Turing's automated voice rang out over the System. 

"Warning: Incoming Game." 

"Talk about timing!" AndrAIa laughed as the four of them hoped onto their zipboards and raced towards the game. 

---- 

When the cube dropped, they found themselves standing a square courtyard. Perl and Matrix immediately took stock of the surroundings. 

"I've played this one before. It's a tournament style fighting game with a twist. The user has the chance to play as a series of characters. There are six minor warriors we have to defeat, and then one of us faces the Shogun. The twist is, after the shogun is defeated, we have to retrieve the enchanted sword before our time limit runs out. the longer we fight, the less time we have to get the sword." 

"Okay. Let's do this then." Matrix replied. "ReBoot!" 

Everyone double-clicked their icons and found themselves wearing ninja costumes of assorted colours. The first warrior stood in the center of the courtyard. "Well, I guess I'll go first." Perl, now dressed in red stepped into the ring. 

The first match went quickly. Perl's opponent only managed to land a few hits before she took him out with a quick kick to the head. She jogged back to the sidelines as they waited for the game to load the next opponent. "Dennis, you should probably take this next one. The further into the game we get, the harder the matches are going to be." 

Dennis, now clad in a deep emerald green, nodded. "Got it." He sprinted out into the ring and faced down his opponent. His mach lasted longer and he took quite a few hits before he managed to knock his opponent to the floor and dispatch him. He limped back to the sidelines. 

"Are you okay?" 

"I'll be fine," he said, smiling wanly at Perl. "Don't worry about me." 

AndrAIa took on the next fighter. This far into the game, the fights got tougher, and both fighters were equipped with razor sharp swords. everyone held their breath as AndrAIa faced off against the other fighter.   
The; two combatants danced around each other for a few moments before the enemy fighter lunged unexpectedly. AndrAIa dropped to the ground and rolled to safety, preparing for the return attack. She slashed her opponent across the stomach but the stroke was shallow and only slowed him down marginally. His return stroke clipped AndrAIa in the shoulder lightly before she could dodge away. AndrAIa sank to her knees, feigning a more serious injury and waited for her attacker to move in for the kill. When he was just within range, she spun around and slid the sword cleanly into his abdomen. 

"Well, that was easy enough," she commented, pushing her hair out of her face. she bent over and ripped two strips of cloth from her outfit. She used one to tie back her long hair, and the other she used to bandage the shallow cut on her shoulder. "Who's up next?" She asked with a grin. After being out of commission for so long, she had to admit it felt good to get back into the action. After all, playing games was what she was programmed for. 

"Matrix, you go next." Perl said. "I'm counting on you to take on the shogun, so AndrAIa and I will take the last two warriors." 

"Good strategy," Matrix agreed, and headed into the ring. Perl watched him fight with a fair amount of awe. He was handling the warrior with no difficulties. In fact, she would have been surprised if he'd even broken a sweat. "He's good..." she murmured under her breath. 

"He is, isn't he?" AndrAIa replied with a grin. 

Perl laughed. "Well, I know Dennis isn't much of a fighter, but I love him anyway." 

"Hey, I heard that." 

"I know, love. That was the point." The verbal sparing was brought to an end as Matrix finished off his opponent and rejoined the group. "My turn again. Wish me luck." She gave Dennis a quick kiss on the cheek before heading out to face the next opponent. 

Perl could tell immediately that this fight was going to be more difficult than the last one. She circled her opponent slowly, sword drawn and at the ready.   
As the match started off, her opponent matched her stroke for stroke, not giving an inch. Time and again she had to retreat a few paces and start another offensive, all the time painfully aware the clock was ticking. She made a lunging attack, trying to catch her opponent low, but at the last moment found herself sprawled on the ground. Her opponent had taken advantage of her off-centered attack and now had her pinned to the ground, sword at her throat. 

On the sidelines, the other three sprites held their breath as they saw Perl go down. "Come on," Dennis whispered, "You can do this." 

Perl closed her eyes and swallowed, feeling the blade against her neck. Why hadn't he struck? He was gloating, she realized, and used the pause to her advantage. She struck upward with both feet, causing her opponent to topple backward. Perl sprang to her feet, the advantage now hers, and quickly ended the match. 

"That was close," she murmured as she rejoined the group. "This user is good. AndrAIa, be careful out there. We need to finish this last match as quickly as possible so Matrix has plenty of time to face the shogun before we have to get the sword. to end the game. 

"I think I can handle that." 

She was true to her word. Within nanoseconds, the last warrior lay in the ring, as set of paralyzing spines protruding from his neck.   
All around them, the scenery flickered and faded away, to be replaced with the interior of a temple lit by the light of hundreds of candles that lined the outer edge of the floor. The shogun- the user's final incarnation- stood in the center of the ring of light, arms crossed, twin sword blades gleaming. 

"Good luck," AndrAIa whispered into Matrix's ear. "And be careful." 

"I will," He affirmed. She embraced him quickly, then stepped back and watched him begin the match. 

No matter how many times she watched him put himself in harm's way, she could never get used to it. She had the utmost confidence in his abilities, but that still didn't quell the tiny pang of fear. The memory of the game they'd lost, of Matrix's battle with Zaytan came unbidden to her mind's eye and reached down with one hand to rest on Frisket's massive head for reassurance. She closed her eyes and swallowed, willing the memories away. 

Seeing the shaken look on AndrAIa's face, Dennis walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You okay?" 

She nodded quickly. "Yeah, I'll be fine." 

"All right." Dennis moved off again to where Perl was watching the Match. "probably analyzing every move,' he thought. He was always amazed at the transformation that came over her when she entered a game, It was as if the woman he knew, the cynical hacker, dropped away and all that was left were the Guardian protocols that still existed within her, despite her efforts to prove otherwise. "How's he doing?" 

"Good..." Perl murmured, not looking away from the two combatants. "The user's quick, but Matrix has him on the defensive now." 

Matrix pressed his attack again. The user was good, but he'd managed to force him into a retreat. He knocked one sword away from the user, then ducked low and swept his opponents legs out from under him. The user hit the floor hard and stayed down, knocked unconscious by the impact. 

"Let's go," Matrix called out to his companions. A panel in the wall had slid back to give them access to the rest of the temple. 

"We've got to hurry. The user still has one last chance to get the sword before we do. This way." Perl led them through the twisting hallways, relying on her memory to lead them. Twice they hit dead ends and had to back track quickly to get onto the right path again. Finally, they arrived outside the room which contained the enchanted sword. 

"Well, looks like this is the end of the road," Dennis said. "You ready?" He called over his shoulder to Matrix and AndrAIa. The pair gave each other a quick glance then tapped their icons, changing them to game sprite mode. AndrAIa bent down and did the same to Frisket's icon. 

"We're ready," she said, straightening back up. 

Dennis opened the doors to reveal the glittering weapon resting on a stand in the center of the room. "Good luck, you two. I hope you make it home soon." He shook both their hands and stepped back. 

"Come back and visit us some time, if you can." Perl said quietly. 

"We will," AndrAIa replied, giving Perl a quick hug. Matrix shook her hand. 

Perl glanced over at Dennis. "Well, what are you waiting for? Let's win this thing." 

Dennis stepped into the room and lifted the sword from it's holder. 

"Game Over." 

---- 

Dennis and Perl found themselves standing back in the small park the game cube had fallen on, their eyes lingering on the blue sky. "Good luck my friends." Dennis said softly, and took Perl's hand in his own. "Let's go home." 

---- 

Matrix and AndrAIa found themselves in a small, deserted courtyard of a sunny, tropical system. At least it seemed deserted until the quiet was broken by a barrage from a marketplace across the square. AndrAIa gave Matrix a puzzled glance, and he just shrugged. He reached down and pulled Glitch from his belt. 

"Glitch, Scanner." The keytool hummed for a moment, then let out a loud beep. "Yes!" Matrix cried and swept AndrAIa up off her feet. 

"Whoa, Enzo," she laughed, surprised by his enthusiasm. "What is it? What did you find?" 

"AndrAIa, we're in a system with ports to the 'Net." He shifted her so that she was now cradled in his arms. "Alphanumeric! We're going home. We're going home!" 

The End. 


End file.
